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.
Second Period Thoughts
Roy made another good defensive play early in the second period. He got into the right position in the slot and after Montembeault made a save that resulted in a rebound, Roy wisely just cleared the area by swiping the puck out of the slot, right out of the zone, but avoided icing the puck at the same time.
Why don't NHL refs ever call goaltender interference anymore? It seems like ever since they started using replay on goals that were a result of goaltender interference that they forgot there is an actual minor penalty they can call for the infraction. Zach Hyman skated into Montembeault's crease, pinned his skate up against Montembeault's, knocked the Canadiens goaltender to the ice, then stepped on him and there was just no call. Insanity.
Rafael Harvey-Pinard and Brendan Gallagher are perfect linemates. I don't think Gallagher has much offense left, and I think RHP has a lot more than we have seen, but they have very similar playing styles and RHP can learn a ton about how to play the game by being on the ice with Gallagher and seeing the veteran's work ethic and smarts in action.
The Oilers took over the play for a while in the middle of the second period. It seemed it was always McDavid with the puck. This guy is simply not fair as he is impossible to stop. It is like a video game out there, except I can't do what he does in video games anymore. It is like the NHL 94 video game with Jeremy Roenick out there.
Speaking of the Oilers taking over play, they didn't find the back of the net by the halfway point of the game because Montembeault made a handful of great saves. He does look a lot more calm and composed in net than he did even last year. I still can't say I am sold on him being a starting goalie at the NHL level when the team is competing, but he does continue to improve and his confidence grows as well.
Jake Allen (remember him?) must be watching this game and wondering if he will ever get in the crease again. Montembeault keeps denying the Oilers superstars and has a three year contract extension, Cayden Primeau has looked really good this season aside from one bad period against the Florida Panthers and is just 24 years old. Allen is nearly a decade older and has the worst numbers of the three Canadiens goalies this season.
The Canadiens hosted the San Jose Sharks who had lost 12 in a row and looked awful against the league's worst team. The Oilers arrived at the Bell Centre on a nine game road trip and somehow headed to the dressing room for the second intermission down 1-0.
We talk a lot about the Canadiens young defense but they still rely on their two veterans to play a ton. Mike Matheson and David Savard lead the way after two periods with nearly 15 minutes of ice time each. The Canadiens will get some interesting trade offers for these two guys in the next eight weeks but will they really pull the trigger?
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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