Montreal Canadiens: Playing frozen at the NHL 100 Classic

The excitement towards the NHL 100 Classic turned into frustration and disappointment for the Montreal Canadiens who were held without a goal in their loss.

Fans from both teams had been looking forward to this game for a while now. When the NHL announced that the Montreal Canadiens and Ottawa Senators would be ringing in the next 100 years, we all marked December 16th down on our calendars.

It was a cold night in Ottawa, but it didn’t seem to bother the sold-out crowd at Lawrence Park. Seeing a large number of Habs jerseys out there was heart-warming as well. You know what wasn’t warming? This game.

Regardless of the historical meaning behind the Classic, watching an NHL game outdoors is always special. There have been some big moments over the years during events like these and players are always looking forward to taking part in them.

It was set to be the first outdoor game for Jonathan Drouin, Byron Froese, Nicolas Deslauriers, Charles Hudon, Shea Weber, Jordie Benn, David Schlemko, and Jakub Jerabek who slotted in for Joseph Morrow. As much as the team tried to downplay it emphasizing the fact that it was just another game and that two points were on the line, you could tell they were looking forward to this one. That was easy to say before puck drop, but not so much during and after.

Montreal was shutout in what had to have been one of the most uneventful outdoor games in a long time. As many have reiterated, the Habs aren’t in a position to go on a rollercoaster of wins and losses, especially to a divisional rival.

Things have tightened up again such that the Habs, Sens, Red Wings, and Panthers are separated by only three points. Additionally, it doesn’t help that Boston picked up a point in their 3-2 loss to the Islanders.

To not show up for a game like this is nothing short of disappointing, and Montreal has a lot of work to do to ensure it doesn’t continue for the rest of the road trip.

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.

Thoughts and Observations

Nothing much changed in the third period, but Montreal managed to warm Anderson up more with some shots. Unfortunately, none of them had a threatening element to them. Pacioretty had a chance to tuck in the puck into an open net after the Sens goaltender took a tumble but missed which goes to show what kind of game we were dealing with.

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Bobby Ryan put the nail in the coffin in the final three minutes of the game. Drouin had the puck stripped off of him after carelessly trying to stickhandle in the defensive zone allowing Ryan to capitalize on it for the goal. I understand trying to make something happen to spark the team, but that area of the ice is no place to do something like that.

The Habs played bad enough in this game where you couldn’t just attribute it to the cold. Lack of compete, energy, drive, and execution against an Ottawa Senators team who has been one of the worst teams in the league as of late is unacceptable.

When it’s only your goaltender and for the most part your fourth line showing up for a game of this magnitude, you’re going to have a bad time.