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

Jan 13, 2024; Montreal, Quebec, CAN; Edmonton Oilers goalie Stuart Skinner (74) makes a save against
Jan 13, 2024; Montreal, Quebec, CAN; Edmonton Oilers goalie Stuart Skinner (74) makes a save against | Eric Bolte-USA TODAY Sports
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Third Period Thoughts

Weird play to start the third period as Warren Foegele drove to the Canadiens net with the puck and tried to jam it in. The puck ended up on top of Montembeault's skate and Leon Draisaitl knocked it over the line. The Canadiens chose to challenge which seemed very risky given the minimal contact with Montembeault on the play.

The goal ended up counting which put the Canadiens on the penalty kill (yikes) in a tie game with 19 minutes left to play. Luckily, Montembeault made another handful of great saves to keep the Oilers from taking the lead.

Holy mackerel, they called a goaltender interference penalty... on Connor McDavid of all people. He did skate right into the crease and run into Montembeault and then fell on top of him, but they never call that and they never call superstars for anything. That was unexpected.

There was a sequence of a few minutes of incredible action with Slafkovsky setting up a pair of chances, Harvey-Pinard nearly sending Brendan Gallagher in all alone, Warren Foegele hitting the post and Montembeault stopping Connor Brown on a breakaway. Slafkovsky's first setup was an incredible pass to Sean Monahan but the veteran somehow couldn't tuck the puck into the net.

David Savard jumped up into the attack a few times trying to create something offensively and it is an underrated part of his game. If he were on a team where forwards scored with some consistency, he would put up decent assist totals and probably be looked at differently around the league.

Kaiden Guhle has played a tremendous game. He has been quiet offensively, but you have to sacrifice a bit of that to shut down the Oilers highly dangerous attack. Guhle has played some tough minutes and been able to keep things fairly quiet in the Canadiens zone when he is on the ice.

Brendan Gallagher hustles back on the backcheck but takes a penalty when he sees his man is about to get a great scoring chance. He must not have realized it was Cody Ceci or he would have just let him shoot. The Canadiens were able to kill off the penalty, resulting in some extra time!

Connor McDavid (booooooo!) set up Evan Bouchard for the game's winning goal on the power play with Mike Matheson sitting in the box in overtime and the Canadiens begin the second half with an overtime loss.

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