A Winning Habit
Fansided

Montreal Canadiens: 24 Thoughts On Habs Lopsided Loss To Blues

By Ken MacMillan

Nov 4, 2023; St. Louis, Missouri, USA; Montreal Canadiens left wing Juraj Slafkovsky (20) reacts after scoring a goal against the St. Louis Blues during the first period at Enterprise Center. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Le-USA TODAY Sports
Nov 4, 2023; St. Louis, Missouri, USA; Montreal Canadiens left wing Juraj Slafkovsky (20) reacts after scoring a goal against the St. Louis Blues during the first period at Enterprise Center. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Le-USA TODAY Sports /
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The Montreal Canadiens head in to their 11th game of the season with a record of 5-3-2. This has been a bit surprising as they have played better than expected to begin the 2023-24 season.

They will look to continue that with Christian Dvorak making his season debut as they wrap up a road trip in St. Louis where they face the Blues.

Here are tonight’s 24 Thoughts on the Canadiens game:

First Period

Giving up three consecutive Grade A scoring chances against on the second shift is probably not the best way to find success. Sam Montembeault made a great save on Colton Parayko on the first one, Johnathan Kovacevic seemed to get just enough of the second one to disrupt it but the third one ends up in the back of the net. Less than a minute and a half in and that was not pretty.

Speaking of Montembeault, and definitely not pinning that first one on him, but Jake Allen was a member of the Blues organization for over a decade. It is surprising that things weren’t lined up so he would get the start against his former team.

Playing Josh Anderson on the top power play continues to bedevil me. He touched the puck three times to begin the man advantage and the next player to touch the puck each time was wearing a blue sweater. And this ain’t that weird retro reverse jersey night so that means he turned the puck over every time.

Slafkovsky scores his first of the season on the power play!! He was moved up to the top line for this game after everyone with a pen wrote this week that he needs to be sent down to the AHL. He got the puck to Caufield on the opening shift which led to a shot on goal, and now Slafkovsky gets the puck down low, gets open, cuts to the net and his shot beat Joel Hofer to tie the game. Maybe he should be on the first power play instead of Anderson?

I think Anderson would be one of the hardest players in the league to play with. Everything is done at 100 miles per hour, but there doesn’t seem to be a lot of thought put into decisions. Just skate really fast towards the net and then shoot at some point. That would be difficult to work with.

Mike Matheson has been far better than expected after arriving in Montreal, but he seems to be a little too aggressive offensively lately. He was beat a few times so far this period leading to odd man rushes against. Having Kovacevic with him as a stay at home defender is the right decision.

Matheson gets beat as the Blues enter the attacking zone and Robert Thomas uses all that space to fire home a wrist shot and give the Blues the lead back.

Nick Suzuki went 0-for-6 on faceoffs in that period. I wonder if he is playing hurt. He would never complain about it, and takes pride in playing every game, but he hasn’t really been himself this year. He has played fine and has eight points in ten games, but seems a little off at times and just not quite at his usual level. I wonder if something is bothering him early this season.

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