Montreal Canadiens Three Stars vs Ottawa Senators
The Montreal Canadiens were sitting atop the NHL standings heading into last night’s contest. A dismantling of the Vancouver Canucks and success against the Edmonton Oilers were the biggest reasons for that status.
The Habs went out on a six game road trip to begin the year and went 4-0-2 in that time. Returning home, they split a pair of games with the Calgary Flames, and then beat the Canucks twice at the Bell Centre.
A 7-1-2 record and a date with the worst team in the league should have made for an easy two points.
However, it didn’t start that way. The Habs did take a 1-0 lead and looked to be in full control of the scoring chances. Brendan Gallagher knocked in a rebound in tight with assists going to his linemates, Phillip Danault and Tomas Tatar. The Habs maintained that lead until the Senators scored a pair of goals in the final minute of the period.
The second period was the worst we have seen from the Canadiens this season by a wide margin.
The Senators scored again to make it 3-1 and the Habs just kind of stood around and were lucky it wasn’t worse. If you told someone that the top team in the league standings was playing the worst team in the league, they’d quickly point out that the Canadiens do look like the worst team in the league.
The Canadiens could hardly get a puck on net, could barely complete two passes in a row and could barely stay onside. It was abysmal.
The third period was a little better, but the Canadiens couldn’t muster enough of an attack to tie the game. A late shorthanded goal by Josh Anderson pulled them within one, but a high sticking penalty to Ben Chiarot and a brutal boarding call on Tomas Tatar in the final few minutes made it impossible to mount a comeback.
Of course, they shouldn’t have been losing to the worst NHL team in the league to begin with.
Alexander Romanov
Romanov surprising stepped into the Canadiens lineup this season and looks like an NHL veteran. He was terrific in his first game of the season, earning a spot higher in the lineup next to Jeff Petry late in a tied game and he was great.
He has settled in as a reliable third pairing guy, mostly with Brett Kulak, and he looks smart, poised and dangerous at both ends of the ice. He has been comfortable running the second power play unit and will lower the boom on an opponent if they are not keeping their head on a swivel when the Russian blue liner is on the ice.
Romanov did just that to Senators star defenceman Thomas Chabot late in the second period of last night’s game.
Alexander Romanov lays the boom on Thomas Chabot pic.twitter.com/0xY0f45fNc
— Brady Trettenero (@BradyTrett) February 5, 2021
The second period was about the worst 20 minutes of hockey I have seen since Randy Cunneyworth was the team’s coach. So, having Romanov destroy the Senators best defenceman with a huge and legal body check was about the only good thing to come out of that period.
The Habs entered the period down 2-1 and were lucky to escape it only being down 3-1. The shots were 8-8, but it seemed like the Canadiens couldn’t even get near the Senators net.
Romanov’s hit was the only good thing that happened in the period.
Phillip Danault
Danault has been having a bit of a tough season, especially offensively. That line with Gallagher and Tatar is terrific defensively, and they usually score their fair share of goals as well, but they just aren’t going in for Danault this season.
He has been getting chances, and more so lately, but nothing has gone in yet. Like, literally nothing. He has zero goals now in 11 games played.
However, he is a big part of this team as he is the veteran leader among the team’s centres as he acts as a mentor for Nick Suzuki, Jesperi Kotkaniemi and Jake Evans, with the 20 year old Kotkaniemi leading that trio in career games played.
Danault’s like looked like its old self last night, creating chances and getting pucks on net, while also shutting things down defensively. Danault only had one shot, but his line combined for ten with Danault helping out on the forecheck, creating turnovers and getting the puck to his wingers for chances.
Danault would get an assist on Gallagher’s goal, getting the puck to Tatar who fired it on goal and created the chance for Gallagher to knock it in. Danault would then assist on the Habs second goal as well, winning a face-off cleanly to Josh Anderson just before the winger fired it past Matt Murray to pull the Canadiens within one late.
Brendan Gallagher
The Canadiens looked good in the first period, despite trailing when the buzzer sounded, but the team’s longest tenured line looked terrific.
Gallagher, Danault and Tatar have been a line for most of the two seasons prior to this one and they were undoubtedly the Canadiens best trio for each of those years. The Habs have added plenty of depth this season with Tyler Toffoli and Josh Anderson joining the team and Jesperi Kotkaniemi and Nick Suzuki taking huge steps forward in their development.
The Gallagher line gave us a reminder of how good they can be as well. They completely dominated the entire first period, firing attempting nine shots on goal in the first period alone, while allowing the Sens just one shot attempt that whole period.
It was Gallagher who got the Habs on the board and gave them a 1-0 lead midway through the period. He crashed the net like he always does and a rebound landed right at his feet. He knocked in the loose puck for his 5th of the season.
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It wasn’t pretty, but it was very Gallaghery.