Montreal Canadiens: Three Standout Performances vs St. Louis Blues
The Montreal Canadiens beat the defending Stanley Cup champions 6-3 last night at the Bell Centre. Here are three players that stood out the most in the win over the St. Louis Blues.
The Montreal Canadiens faced a difficult test last night. After their first four games, they had an odd record of 1-1-2. So, they won one of their first four games, which sounds like a bad start. But they had points in three of four games which sounds like a great start. What it was, was a very uneven start.
The Canadiens had been able to put pucks in the net. They averaged 3.5 goals per game over those first four games and that is a terrific rate when you have Carey Price tending goal in your own end of the ice.
The problem with the first four games was that the team’s defensive game was so bad, that they allowed 4.25 goals per game. It’s early and most teams are not buttoned down defensively just yet, but the Canadiens were allowing close to 40 shots on goal per game which was the second highest in the league to start the season.
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The goal scoring was great, and the third period comebacks were terrific to watch. However, allowing 40 shots per game and more than four goals per game needed to be fixed immediately. Unfortunately for the Canadiens, it was the defending Stanley Cup champion St. Louis Blues in town for last night’s contest.
The game started superbly for the Canadiens. They shuffled their defence pairings, putting Brett Kulak back in the top four with Jeff Petry who he had tremendous chemistry with last season. This moved newcomer Ben Chiarot down to the third pairing and though his $3.5 million contract doesn’t look like the stipend of a third pairing defender, that’s the role his play has warranted.
The shuffling worked well in the opening period. With seven minutes to play, the Blues had just one shot on goal. They even killed off a penalty early in the period without incident. Of course, late in the period the Blues pounced on the Habs lone mistake. An errant Max Domi pass across the ice found a Blues stick and they quickly transitioned up ice on a 3 on 2. A nice pass by Vladimir Tarasenko to Brayden Schenn in the slot quickly ended up in the back of the Habs net.
The Canadiens responded quickly, as Chiarot fired a perfect pass to a streaking Jonathan Drouin who beat Jordan Binnington with a quick wrist shot. The Blues were able to pull ahead in the second period with goals from Sammy Blais and Vince Dunn on the power play.
Phillip Danault tied it late in the second and the third period belonged to the Montreal Canadiens. Goals from Artturi Lehkonen, Brendan Gallagher and Max Domi made the score 6-3 and the Habs outshot the Blues 16-10 in the final frame to come away with a big win on home ice.
Who stood out the most for the Canadiens? Let’s take a look at their three stars.