Montreal Canadiens Game Reactions: It’s a Wild Wild Mess
By Omar L
The Montreal Canadiens couldn’t find a way to make it three wins in a row as they drop a frustrating game to the Minnesota Wild.
In a world, where you can go from an 8-3 blow out to a 6-3 shelling meet the Montreal Canadiens. They had a chance to shorten the gap to that second wild card spot, but with this loss, they’ve made it worse. Ironically, it was the Minnesota Wild that knocked them deeper into the hole.
Montreal is back to last place in the Eastern Conference and is tied for third for most goals against with 51. Unfortunately, the schedule doesn’t get any easier for the Habs. They’ll be in Winnipeg to take on the Jets on Saturday, and then the Chicago Blackhawks the next night.
You look at a game like this and the first thing you think is, “What’s going on?”. Sure you can the team needs to keep working, but this up and down success is doing the Habs nothing but harm.
Thoughts and Observations
Let’s just address the elephant in the room. Carey Price wasn’t good enough this game. Goals one, two, and four are absolutely on him. What makes the first two goals against worse was that they happened within 10 seconds of each other.
The attempt to make the save off the rebound from the Mike Rielly shot was bad. Price looked pretty sloppy getting across and it was easy for Matt Cullen to find the back of the net. Price’s body language ahead of the second goal was concerning.
His attempt to clear the puck out of the zone was picked up at the blueline by Matt Dumba, and there was no urgency from Price to get set in the net. Sure the shot was eventually tipped by Nino Niederreiter, but there just didn’t seem to be any fight from him.
So you start the game down 2-0, then the defensive issues start to pile up. Poorly timed and placed turnovers in combination with ridiculous pinches. Brandon Davidson had two and one of them which led to the third goal of the game. Fortunately Jonathan Drouin was able to get back on the other to breakup the 2-on-1.
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The Montreal Canadiens decided to make this game more interesting. It started with Charles Hudon forcing the turnover in the neutral zone creating an odd man rush along with Brendan Gallagher. He made a nifty move to the backhand after receiving the pass to break the goal drought for the Habs in the game.
Unfortunately, Jared Spurgeon put the Wild up by four after his power play goal, but the Canadiens continued to push. The Phillip Danault line was spending a lot of time in the offensive zone. Max Pacioretty landed an effective hit on Ryan Ellis causing him to lose the puck. Danault picked off the turnover and send the puck to a streaking in Andrew Shaw to get his first of the season.
Then good luck came Montreal’s way as Gallagher got his second of the game off a short angle shot that bounced off Devan Dubnyk‘s skate. It was now a two goal hockey game (which may have made you think back to the first period and scream).
The Habs took the game to the Wild out shooting the 12-3 in the third, but it wasn’t enough. Pacioretty had the cherry on top for the team’s woes as Marcus Foligno got the empty-netter from a nice pass by the Habs’ captain (sarcasm).
Price finished the game with a .808 save percentage. Is it fair for fans to be critical of his play? Absolutely. However you can’t ignore the mistakes the rest of the team was making. We’ll have to see what’s coming next for the Habs.
It’s been beaten to death, but Montreal needs to figure this out. This down-up-down season their having so far will be their downfall if it continues.
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What did you make of the game? Are you worried about press? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.