Montreal Canadiens: 24 Thoughts On Habs Looking Uninterested In Game 35
Third Period Thoughts
Anderson split the defense and had a breakaway in the first ten seconds of the third period. He didn't score, but he also had a similar chance a few seconds into the first period. A quick starter and a confident player all of a sudden.
Kevin Stenlund has scored more goals this season than Matthew Tkachuk.
An interesting sidenote to Canadiens and Panthers games is that Florida's draft pick in 2025 could end up in Montreal. We really don't want it to as it is part of a convoluted trade with the Calgary Flames. If the Panthers make the playoffs next year (2024-25) they send their 2025 first round pick to Calgary and then Calgary gives either theirs or the Panthers pick to Montreal. If the Panthers miss the playoffs they keep their pick and the Flames have to send their own to the Canadiens for taking on Sean Monahan. So, this year doesn't matter at all but we want the Panthers to miss the playoffs next season and the Flames to be really bad. I could see the Flames being really bad....
Joel Armia kind of tackled Oliver Ekman-Larsson for no reason in the offensive zone. Why? He jumped into him and tore his helmet off and then kept skating past. It was completely useless and ended up with him in the box and Eetu Luostarainen scoring his second goal of the night to make it 2-1 Panthers.
Ylonen got a shift with Brendan Gallagher and Christian Dvorak and I like to see him moved up the lineup a bit, and by taking Armia's place it's not like he could be worse..... and then the line got scored on as Sam Bennett appeared to tip an Ekman-Larsson point shot.
Anthony Stolarz, the Panthers goaltender, tried to score a goalie goal when the Canadiens pulled their netminder. Hopefully the Canadiens are taking notes again because they only had eight shots on goal after 40 minutes of this game. At least the Panthers goalie has the right idea.
I was hoping the Canadiens would look like a fun offensive team that Sam Reinhart would want to join as a free agent this summer. They need some offensive punch and have plenty of cap space to spend in the summer. I don't think he is going to be looking at this team and thinking that is the best place to play.
These two games coming out of Christmas break have taken a lot of wind out of my Habs fan sails. I have always expected they would miss the playoffs this season, but was pleasantly surprised to see them within a couple of points of the playoffs after winning their final game before the break. Not only have they lost two in row since, but they have looked awful in doing so. They have barely mounted an offenisve attack in either game and get to face the Lightning tonight.