Montreal Canadiens: Playing frozen at the NHL 100 Classic

Thoughts and Observations

The best thing about the opening period of the game was Carey Price. Max Pacioretty had a decent drive to the net, which we haven’t seen from him in a while, but the Habs weren’t generating any dangerous chances. You could blame it on the temperature (-10.8 C/12.5 F at puck drop), but slow starts have been the team’s bread and butter lately.

Price, on the other hand, looked completely dialed in despite being run a little too often. The Habs were outshot 29-16 in the opening two periods. Price was mostly making routine stops but had to make the occasional big stop including the one on Matt Duchene after David Schlemko’s poorly timed pinch that resulted in a 2-on-1.

Tomas Plekanec took the bulk of the Habs face-offs, and at a point was getting the wins for them. That isn’t saying much considering he won five of nine by the end of the second. Everyone else on the team couldn’t get a draw to go their way. Jonathan Drouin has mostly struggled in this area of the game, but to have the other centerman fail to win in the circle added to the Habs inability to generate any pressure. He finished the game at 50% winning three of three (not impressive).

It finally caught up with them after Jean-Gabriel Pageau’s face-off win led to his own goal. Phillip Danault actually got the win, but Tom Pyatt stole the puck. Schlemko and Pacioretty were unable to get the get it back allowing Erik Karlsson to take a point shot which would be deflected by Pageau in front past Price. Even after that, the Habs still lacked that extra step in their stride to try to turn things around.