Montreal Canadiens: 24 Thoughts On Habs Shootout Win Over Jets

The Montreal Canadiens took on the Winnipeg Jets at the Bell Centre in their 8th game of the season. The team started the year 4-2-1 which is probably a lot better than many expected, but this young team has looked good so far this season.

Joel Armia slots in for his first game of the season, and Kaiden Guhle returns to the lineup after nursing an upper-body injury. Jesse Ylonen and Gustav Lindstrom get the night off and will watch from the press box. Jake Allen gets the start for a crease battle against Jets goaltender Laurent Brossoit.

The Jets are coming off a 4-1 win against the Detroit Red Wings, which marked their third win in a row. Montreal, of course, had the 4-3 overtime win against the Columbus Blue Jackets, which Cole Caufield ended with his patented wrister. The tally was Caufield’s sixth career overtime-clinching goal and his second of the season.

Both teams want to stay in the win column, in this All-Canadian matchup. This marks the team’s first matchup of the season. It should be a good one, with two teams that like to play a fast and physical game style.

First Period Thoughts

The first five minutes of the game were relatively a feeling-out process, with both teams trying to establish their game plan. Montreal failed to establish any significant time in the offensive zone, with the majority of their rushes being one-and-done chances. They managed just one shot

Mike Matheson got caught hooking Jets captain Adam Lowry on a breakaway, and he was awarded a penalty shot. Lowry came in patiently and fired a perfectly placed shot past Jake Allen. The tally broke the 1-0 stalemate and was Lowry’s first against the Canadiens as the captain.

Justin Barron wasted little time tying the game up, after a nice rush up the ice from Guhle who threaded a great pass to Rafael Harvey-Pinard. Pinard made a nice feed to Barron in the slot, and he slipped a nice shot past Brossoit. Barron has looked very comfortable, and defensively he has looked much more invested in defending. The tally marked the Habs fifth powerplay goal in as many games.

Cole Caufield’s first mark on the scoresheet came up as a penalty against the Jets. The Canadiens managed to have a penalty shot against, and now the first penalty of the game, and the first period isn’t even seven minutes old. The penalty came at 6:29 of the period for tripping.

The Jets’ powerplay controlled the puck in the Habs zone for almost the whole first minute before the Habs cleared it. Armia found himself on one of the two penalty-killing units alongside Jake Evans, and the pair played a great shift.

During the Jets’ final seven seconds of their powerplay, they took a penalty for too many men on the ice. Morgan Barron hopped over the boards without realizing he was the sixth Jet player on the ice. The Habs powerplay suffered the same fate as the Jets, it ended after the two minutes unsuccessfully.

Caufield almost had a brilliant scoring opportunity, he was almost sprung on a breakaway by Harvey-Pinard, but he just missed the puck, trying to corral it with a dive. After a great effort, Guhle took a penalty for tripping Vladislav Namestnikov, although it looked more like he overpowered the smaller forward, and the Jets were unable to crack the Habs penalty kill.

With a little momentum from their penalty kill, the Canadiens had just under two minutes to increase their five shots on net and put another dent in the Jets’ side. It was nothing doing, but they did handle the puck a little bit more, establishing some strong puck possession. Caufield lost track of the puck, and the Jets had a golden opportunity to go up 2-1, but Allen stood tall.

Second Period Thoughts

With a tie heading into the second frame, it should be expected that both teams would battle to steal the momentum early on. The Canadiens started the Alex Newhook, Juraj Slafkovsky and Josh Anderson line, with Newhook winning the faceoff. Unfortunately, they lost control of the puck and it ended up in the back of their net, on a tally by Lowry.

15 seconds into the second period and the Habs are down a goal, in a game where they have been heavily outshot. The Jets attacked again, and Slafkovsky turned the puck over to Mason Appleton who fed a pass to Nino Niederreiter. He made no mistake slipping a shot past Allen.

Caufield put two shots towards the net and looked to have a little more jump in his stride. He was flying and made a couple of rushes where it looked like the defender wasn’t even there. Although Caufield was unable to capitalize, his shift gave the lineup some energy and they seemed faster than they were in the first period.

With five minutes gone in the second, the Canadiens increased their shot output to 11. While the number isn’t significant, especially when compared with Winnipeg’s 22 shots, the majority of the shots were of the high-danger variety. Slafkovsky, Anderson and Newhook’s speed was noticeable, and the Jets definitely had all they could handle with that line on the ice.

The crowd had nearly reached their boiling point, down 3-1, and a couple of missed calls later, they were awarded with a Habs powerplay. Lowry went to the box for tripping, and the Canadiens had a great chance to pull within one goal. Sean Monahan made Brossoit guess, and he guessed wrong, sliding one way, and he just tucked it in with a nice backhand. Assists went to captain Nick Suzuki, and his assistant captain Mike Matheson.

Allen handled the onslaught by the Jets quite well, and while he wasn’t involved in the powerplay tally, he has held the Jets at three goals. With 10 minutes to go, and down by one goal, the Canadiens put on their work boots and supported one another, on the back of Allen’s inspiring play. The Habs’ fifth powerplay goal of the season has shown a lot of the team’s fighter’s mentality and drive to keep improving.

Approaching five minutes to play, the Habs had 17 shots, but couldn’t get anything past Brossoit. They weren’t playing poorly, but the bounces just weren’t in their favour. Caufield almost had a clear one-timer shot on a tee from Brendan Gallagher, but it got blocked.

The final two minutes came, and the teams both kept pushing hard. Anderson had a couple of rush opportunities showing off his speed, but his shots didn’t translate to any rebound. Allen let out a rebound, and it eventually came back to Barron who fired it over the glass trying to dump it out of the zone. With seven seconds left, Montreal went to the box, fortunately, Harvey-Pinard was able to clear the puck down the ice and hold the Jets to just a single-goal lead.