Montreal Canadiens: 24 Thoughts On Habs Falling Short In Game 42

The Montreal Canadiens wrapped up the first half of their regular season schedule with a lacklustre effort against the San Jose Sharks.

They kicked off the second half with a game against the highly powered Edmonton Oilers who are on a hot streak.

Here are 24 thoughts on the Canadiens 42nd game of the season.

First Period Thoughts

Big night for Canadiens top forward prospect Joshua Roy who made his NHL debut. The 20 year old has been one of the best players on the Laval Rocket all season and earned the recall to the big leagues with his great two-way play.

Sam Montembeault gets the start in this game. I thought they would start Jake Allen to try and convince the Oilers they need to trade for the veteran. Of course, that would leave them spending about $9 million on backup goaltenders so maybe there is just no chance that will ever happen.

Cole Caufield had a great start to the game, drawing a tripping penalty on Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and then getting open on the power play and ripping home the game's opening goal. He hasn't seemed to have that same instant release that goaltenders just can't stop lately, but it was on display just a few minutes into last night's contest.

Juraj Slafkovsky made another one of those plays that make you think he is just about on the verge of putting it all together and becoming a legit first line power forward. He showed the confidence to deke around a defender on the rush and pull the puck to the backhand, but couldn't quite get a strong shot off.

Joshua Roy looked a bit nervous on once ofhis first shifts. The Canadiens were stuck in their own zone and twice the puck came to Roy but sort of hopped over his stick as he failed to collect it. It didn't help that he was on the ice with an exhausted Nick Suzuki and Juraj Slafkovsky and against Connor McDavid, but Roy did get into good defensive positioning and block a shot with his stick to eliminate one possible scoring threat.

Canadiens second power play on the period started with Roy making a great pass to setup a scoring chance and then Caufield getting a seemingly difficult pass but somehow turning it into a rocket of a one-timer that was labeled for the top corner before Stuart Skinner made a difficult shoulder save. This is the Caufield we all know and love.

Jordan Harris got absolutely demolished by an Oilers forechecker at the side of his own net. Like, completely wrecked by a powerful body check. The only problem was the puck was never anywhere near him on the play. This small detail seemed to evade the referee standing a few feet away watching Harris fly through the air into the boards.

Considering how bad the Canadiens looked in the past two games, keeping McDavid off the scoresheet and really limiting the Oilers chances for the entire 20 minutes and heading into the first intermission with a 1-0 lead is impressive work.