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Montreal Canadiens vs. San Jose Sharks Review Pain and Misery

By Joshua Rosa

Oct 19, 2021; Montreal, Quebec, CAN; San Jose Sharks and Montreal Canadiens players exchange blows during the first period at Bell Centre. Mandatory Credit: Jean-Yves Ahern-USA TODAY Sports
Oct 19, 2021; Montreal, Quebec, CAN; San Jose Sharks and Montreal Canadiens players exchange blows during the first period at Bell Centre. Mandatory Credit: Jean-Yves Ahern-USA TODAY Sports /
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MONTREAL, QC – OCTOBER 19: Montreal Canadiens (Photo by Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images)
MONTREAL, QC – OCTOBER 19: Montreal Canadiens (Photo by Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images) /

A Very Slow Start

Okay, so the Montreal Canadiens have started the season with four straight losses, that constitutes a molasses-like start to the season. But that also applies to this specific game as well. NHL veteran of 1 game Jonathan Dahlen scored his first NHL goal 1:22 into the game. It was a double deflection that was impossible for Allen to stop. Then, just 2:14 later, Dahlen scored his second career goal off of a Logan Couture rebound on a two-on-one. Once again, impossible for Jake Allen to stop.

A strong start is always good in the National Hockey League. Getting scored on first is not a death-sentence, but it is much tougher to play from behind, and its even harder when you have lost three games in a row and have absolutely no confidence. 2 goals in the first 5 minutes is really tough to come back from, 3-0 by the end of the first is almost insurmountable.

And this is the Montreal Canadiens in the year 2021 we are talking about. The same team that went to the Stanley Cup Final basically on the strength of their strong starts and playing with the lead. Any time that Montreal scored first, they were winning the game. Scoring second, eh, we won’t talk about that. The odd thing was that this was the exact same story with the Tampa Bay Lightning, and that was pretty much how the Final played out.

Montreal started the season strong, when Jonathan Drouin scored the first goal of their season, but they could not muster anything else. The next three games the opposition scored first. Its hard for any team to win games while being scored on first, and Montreal is a team that has struggled playing from behind.

Not only that, but Montreal did not have a good response at all. At the end of the first period, San Jose took 11 shots and Montreal mustered 4. Montreal took just one more shot than San Jose had goals. The Canadiens did outshoot the Sharks in the second, but by then the game had been put solidly out of reach. It is hard to know if Montreal put the foot on the gas, or if San Jose let off of it.

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