A Winning Habit
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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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Nov 4, 2023; St. Louis, Missouri, USA; Montreal Canadiens Alex Newhook. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Le-USA TODAY Sports
Nov 4, 2023; St. Louis, Missouri, USA; Montreal Canadiens Alex Newhook. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Le-USA TODAY Sports /

Second Period

Kaiden Guhle is

going to be

a beast on this blue line for a long time. That’s all.

I’m not really sure why Jesse Ylonen has to sit. I know he wasn’t piling up points but he is a smart young player with a great shot. Would make sense to have him in the lineup over Joel Armia or Michael Pezzetta. I like Pezzetta, he works really hard but he’s the definition of a placeholder in the lineup while Ylonen has some potential.

Justin Barron makes a great defensive play to save a goal. Calmly just knocks the puck away as a Blues player tries to tap it into a wide open net. When fully healthy, I don’t know who sits because it isn’t gonna be Barron again…. Imagine talking about the Canadiens and using the phrase “fully healthy”… hilarious.

The puck over glass rule is not the best one in the book. Just don’t let them change like on an icing. I have hated this rule since April 30 2006 when Andrei Markov got called for it against the Carolina Hurricanes in Game 5 of a first round playoff series against the Carolina Hurricanes and Matt Cullen scored the game winning goal on the power play. But I’ll probably get over it.

Kudos to Joel Hofer for stopping both a Brendan Gallagher jam play at the side of the crease and a hard snap shot from Cole Caufield within about two seconds of each other. It was like watching the past and future of Canadiens goals but without the puck ever going in the net.

Newhook has been kind of fighting it recently. I hoped a move to the wing would help his game and he did set up Slafkovsky for the first goal, but a brutal turnover at center ice leads to the Blues third goal.

Now Gallagher scores from above the hashmarks?!?! This is a whole new Gallagher as he has not scored from outside the crease area in 12 years. Kidding. But it was a great play by Sean Monahan behind the net to steal the puck from the Blues defenseman and find Gallagher in the slot. What to do with Monahan? The trade offers are going to be hard to pass up if he keeps this up but what a great leader and scorer to have around.

Pearson drags his stick behind him on the backcheck, leaving it in the passing lane and the puck hits him right on the tape which leads to a turnover. It is easy to see how him and Tyler Toffoli worked so well together for those years in Los Angeles.

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