Montreal Canadiens: 24 Thoughts On Habs Loss To Canucks
Second Period
Noah Juulsen made a solid defensive play to not allow Sean Monahan to get to a loose puck in the slot, but also avoided taking a penalty. Always wished the Habs found a way to keep him. He had too much potential to lose on waivers
Just realized the reason there were no whistles in the first period is because the referees just did nothing. Justin Barron just took a stick to the mouth from a Canucks defender and there was no call. I’m logging off for a few minutes, I have to send a resume to the NHL right quick to be a ref. I mean, what other job can you make a decent wage without doing your job all winter and then get the summer off?
Christian Dvorak fires one home from long range but it is called back on an offside. Second time this has happened to the Canadiens this week. Were we really this desperate for offside reviews? I watched hockey for a long time before this rule came in to play and I never remember being outraged that a player was probably a quarter of an inch offside well before a puck entered the net.
Weird play as Kaiden Guhle has a rare bad shift. He jumped into the offensive zone but hesitated a bit too long with the puck and JT Miller took it the other way. On the way back, Guhle ran into his own goalie and knocked Jake Allen’s stick behind the net. A few seconds later Ilya Mikheyev snipes one over Allen’s glove. Guhle still rules.
Speaking of Guhle, he just carried the puck up ice, made a pass to get into the attacking zone, jumped into the play, then immediately got back and even though there was a weird bounce that could have sent a Canucks player on a rush, Guhle was already back defensively and just knocked the puck away. His combination of size and speed, of offense and defense is hard to find at his age. I hope he gets the Jake Sanderson treatment this summer and is locked up long term while we watch the salary cap quickly rise for the next several years.
Casey DeSmith makes a great save on Brendan Gallagher after a ridiculous turnover. Maybe the Habs should have kept four goalies.
Slafkovsky has played 11:05 after two periods which is fifth among forwards on the team. He also leads the team in shots on goal with five and has had a handful of dangerous chances. Still no goals to show for it but he is having one of his best games of his career which is great to see.
Kind of feels like the Habs are right in this one but also are down 3-0 after two periods. Not their best game of the year as they are having a hard time getting to the Canucks net, and will need to create a little more traffic in front in the third period if they want to chip away at this deficit.
Third Period
Another referee without the stones to call a penalty shot… this happens nearly every game with the Canadiens. I didn’t complain when it was David Pastrnak who should have had one against them, but Josh Anderson definitely deserved one early in the third period and he didn’t get the call. He needs a goal so bad and that could have been the springboard but alas, the Habs head to a power play.
Completely unrelated to the game we are watching but the Colorado Avalanche just announced Pavel Francouz is out for the season. Do they have another Justin Barron we can have for any one of our goalies?
Mike Matheson, whose defensive game I’ve been critical of, has been fine in his own end tonight and he gets the Habs on the board on the power play as he steps up into a scramble in front and fires a puck into the net to finally beat DeSmith.
Anderson got an assist on that goal and I have also been critical of his game but he has played well lately and gotten nothing to show for it. He deserves something to go his way and he got a little something with a second assist on that goal.
Both Nick Suzuki and Brendan Gallagher have lost skate blades on seemingly innocuous plays to start the period. Did the equipment manager forget to put the new ones in all the way or is this some sort of Marc Bergevin prank on his old team? Probably Bergevin breaking into the Bell Centre and undoing everyone’s skate blades in the intermission. Yeah, that seems likely.
The Canucks have been rumoured to be interested in a right defenseman and while they will likely target a veteran and probably one in Calgary, could they be interested in giving up a young forward for one of the Habs young defenders? The Canadiens are stacked on defense but need some more top six forwards for the future. What about Justin Barron for Vasili Podkolzin? Makes sense, I’ll call the league.
Allen has made some incredible saves in this period, robbing a pair of Canucks on two separate cross ice one-timers. I really have no idea which direction the Canadiens will go with the three goalies they have. Does someone overpay for Allen? Does Montembeault leave since he is a pending UFA? Does a rebuilding team find a spot for Primeau and give up a pick for him? I have no idea what happens.
Arber Xhekaj scores an obvious goal that definitely counts and there is a delay as the review room in Toronto desperately tries to find a way to wipe out another Habs goal. They can’t find a reason to not count it so it stands but the Habs lose 5-2 anyway after a couple of empty net goals by the Canucks.
Next. Habs Looking To Re-Sign Montembeault. dark
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