Montreal Canadiens showing how lethal their even strength scoring is
The Montreal Canadiens walked into last night’s game and dominated the Detroit Red Wings proving that they’re one of the most dangerous teams at 5v5.
Who is feeling who’s net with pucks again? The Montreal Canadiens got the response they were looking for against the Detroit Red Wings obliterating them 8-1. And for what it’s worth, Jesperi Kotkaniemi finished the game with a pretty assist on the Joel Armia goal playing a total of 12:25 while Filip Zadina was a -1. HA!
All jokes aside, that game was a prime example of how dangerous a team the Habs are at even strength. Sure you can make the point that it’s just Detroit (a bottom five team in the league this season), but this hasn’t been the first time the Montreal Canadiens looked so good at even strength.
Claude Julien called his shot in starting Carey Price in back-to-back games, and it paid off as he stopped 28 of 29 shots (.966 save percentage). But of course, the story of the night was the offence. Taking a gander at the box score is a solid pick-me-up for what’s to come the rest of the season.
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Andrew Shaw recorded his first career hat-trick and is now at 16 goals on the season. Max Domi set a career high with a five-point night including two goals and three assists and is on his way to demolishing his previous NHL totals with 18 games remaining. Jonathan Drouin went apple picking adding four assists to his season total where three of them were primary ones.
Kotkaniemi’s helper on the Armia goal was his 20th of the year and 31st point. Jeff Petry proved that he doesn’t need Shea Weber out of the lineup to produce recording his 30th assist for the second season in a row sitting one point shy of his output last year.
It’s insane how strongly the Montreal Canadiens took control of the ice. They dominated the Red Wings in possession in every single period and had the majority of their scoring chances and shots come within the high-danger zone. Consequently, six of their goals were in that region with one other goal coming from the top of the right circle.
Montreal now has 148 goals at 5v5 good for sixth in the league. This is their strength.
It is important to keep things in perspective. Detroit was horrid defensively. Armia had a wide open net with zero coverage on his goal, Drouin capitalized on a turnover to help set up Shaw’s first while Domi picked up a giveaway in the offensive zone for a one-touch pass to Shaw for his second.
Next. The Powerplay is Easy yet Hard to Fix. dark
Teams can determine how dangerous the Habs can be by how hard they play against them. If they’re a competent group that knows how to execute, it could be difficult forcing the Montreal Canadiens to adjust and find other ways to score. Otherwise, it’s a cake walk, and the score ends up being 8-1.