Montreal Canadiens: Vegas Game 1 Deja-Vu of Toronto Game 2

Now is not the time to panic. Not yet.

The Montreal Canadiens lost the first game of their Stanley Cup Semi-Final series against the Vegas Golden Knights by a score of 4-1. It wasn’t a complete loss. Montreal had their chances early against Vegas, Cole Caufield scored his first NHL Playoff goal, and at times Marc-Andre Fleury looked like he was fighting the puck and swimming in the crease.

Everything was looking okay, even after the first goal scored by Shea Theodore, the game is well within reach and Montreal was playing well. And then it just sort of fell apart.

Canadiens Penalty Problems

In Game 1, there were 7 total penalties, 4 for the Canadiens and 3 for the Golden Knights, all minors. Now, that does not sound too bad for Montreal; only one more minor penalty is not so bad. To put it into perspective as well, Montreal scored a powerplay goal and Vegas did not. So what is the problem?

You have to look at when exactly the penalties took place. Phillip Danault got a hooking penalty at 18:20 in the first period. Ben Chiarot then got a delay of game 7 seconds into the second period. Joel Edmundson took a slashing penalty at 5:04 in the second period. And finally Brett Kulak got a tripping call at 8:20 in the second. On the other side, Johnathan Marchessault got high-sticking at 2:38 in the first, Shea Theodore got tripping at 5:20 in the second, and William Carrier roughed for two minutes in the box at 11:46 in the second.

The difference between the two teams is that one team’s penalties were a bit more spread out in the game, and one’s were concentrated around one time frame. All of the Canadiens penalties took place within 12 minutes of each other. It is near impossible to gain any momentum when it is stopped by constant penalty killing.

By penalty killing for an extended period of time, Montreal is always playing on the back foot, a position that Montreal is not necessarily comfortable with.

Montreal is best when they can roll their four lines, and now that they have found a groove, and Ducharme has stopped tinkering with his lines, there has been some great chemistry. For example, the line of Corey Perry – Joel Armia – Eric Staal was one of the best lines in the Winnipeg series, and for that matter, Game 1 of the Vegas series. Perry and Staal do not kill penalties, especially at this stage in their careers, but Armia does.

Armia, Danault, Byron, Toffoli and Suzuki are the Canadiens most common penalty killing forwards. That is a forward from each of the lines, and it really messes with Montreal’s mantra of rolling four lines when Ducharme has to worry about the ice times of the penalty killers and making lines with the remaining non-penalty killers.

Montreal works best when it is almost like a muscle memory. It becomes automatic, and every line plays the same, making it hard for opponents to handle the constant pressure that Montreal is capable of exerting. But penalty killing ruins that rhythm that is so essential to Montreal’s game. Is it any wonder that Montreal looked best in the first and third period, where they took no penalties?

Deja Vu All Over Again

This story sounds a little familiar. After surprising everyone in the first game against Toronto by winning 2-1, Toronto came back in Game 2 with a vengeance. Montreal ended up losing the game 5-1, and going back to Montreal with the series tied 1-1.

The circumstances and score were a little bit different in the Toronto game. Montreal scored first, Jesperi Kotkaniemi’s first in his first game, but Toronto tied it up by the end of the first. It was a good first period for Montreal, but it fell apart in the second period. Sound familiar?

Montreal took four penalties in the second period alone (Gallagher: high sticking, Lehkonen: slashing, Kotkaniemi: cross-checking, Anderson: delay of game). Toronto scored twice in the period, but only once on the powerplay. Now that powerplay goal by Sandin did put the game away, but the damage was already done. 8 minutes in penalties is enough to put even the best teams on their heels.

The third period was worse for penalties, and Toronto scored another powerplay goal, and it ended 5-1. It could have gone differently if there were not so many penalties taken by the Canadiens. In both games, Montreal played well early and were only thrown off by the penalties. Could they have won both games? Maybe. But they would have been close, at least. And if the game was closer, we would be talking about the first game in a whole new way.

Instead of Vegas asserting their dominance, it becomes Montreal being able to keep up with Vegas and keep the game close, because the game was close before the second period, and it seemed like it would be kept close throughout the third. Vegas never scored on the powerplay, but scored directly after one, and the high number of penalties threw Montreal off of their groove.

If Montreal stays out of the penalty box, they can get back to what they do best, wearing down the opponent with four lines of equal intensity that will eventually break through. Fleury looked shaky at times of the game, leaving out some juicy rebounds and scrambles that Montreal will have to convert more times on if they are going to win this series.

But to win the game, Montreal is going to have to stay out of the box, pure and simple. They do have a good penalty killing unit, it did go 4 for 4 in the game, and they have shown they can be potent offensive threats with a man down, but there are only so many times that you can go down a man and not have some major negative side effects, even if it doesn’t end up with a powerplay goal. When Montreal played their game, they were capable of hanging with Vegas and getting scoring chances. When not on their game, due to the penalties breaking up the rhythm of the game, the Golden Knights ran away with it.

It took Montreal 4 games to figure out the Toronto Maple Leafs, but now they don’t have that long to figure out the Golden Knights. Ducharme will have to be proactive to try to get guys like Anderson and Gallagher going, because they will have to be going if Montreal is going to have a chance. And stay out of the penalty box for heaven’s sake.