Montreal Canadiens: 24 Thoughts On Habs Heartbreak In Game 32
The Montreal Canadiens inched closer to the Christmas break last night with a game on the road against the Minnesota Wild. They started this road trip off with an overtime win against the Winnipeg Jets and now look to creep a little closer to a playoff spot.
Here are 24 thoughts on the Habs 32nd game of the season.
First Period Thoughts
Sam Montembeault got the start for the Canadiens after Jake Allen defeated the Jets earlier this week. This means Cayden Primeau's sole appearance in the month of December remains a 46 save on 48 shot victory over the Buffalo Sabres nearly two weeks ago.
Emil Heineman made his NHL debut on the fourth line with Jesse Ylonen and Mitchell Stephens. He has a heck of a shot and some offensive instincts that translated immediately to the AHL level when he arrived last season. Hopefully he can add some scoring punch for the Canadiens.
Nick Suzuki tried to get a pass across to Juraj Slafkovsky on a 2-on-1 and it was knocked away, negating any scoring chance. If that happened the other way and it was Slafkovsky who elected to pass instead of shoot, he would be crucified in the media and they would say he isn't smart enough to play on the top line. But, sometimes plays just don't work when you are facing NHL opposition who are also really good.
A great defensive play by Mike Matheson took away a terrific scoring chance by Marco Rossi who appeared to be in alone. Matheson gets deserved credit for his ability to join the offensive attack and add points, but he showed some defensive poise with a perfectly timed poke check to knock the puck away from a talented youngster.
A scrum in front of the Canadiens net lead to a Wild power play as David Savard was given the only penalty. Matt Boldy takes advantage as he fired home a one-timer on a perfect cross ice pass from Kirill Kaprizov. Johnathan Kovacevic moved up high in the defensive zone and no one really covered for him down low which left Boldy wide open in the slot for the goal.
You have to wonder if the couple of shots Savard gave out in the scrum were really worth putting the team down a man...
Matheson made another terrific defensive play to save a goal by blocking a shot when Montembeault was down and out. The Wild were clearly offside entering the zone, but it was still a great play. Seconds later, the Wild entered the zone seemingly offside again and Marco Rossi scored off the rush. A lengthy review after a Canadiens challenge showed Kaprizov's skate entered the zone at exactly the same time as the puck and the Habs were charged a penalty as the goal counted. Had the linesman just called the obvious first offside none of this would have happened.
Just three shots on goal for the Canadiens in the opening period which is a pretty disappointing effort. They did look pretty decent early on but were not able to create many chances and need to dig out of a sizeable hole against a Wild team that has been allowing about two goals per game since their new head coach took over.
Second Period Thoughts
The Canadiens lost their past seven games in Minnesota and continued that trend with a poor first period. The last time they won a game in Minnesota Benoit Pouliot set up Ryan White for a goal. That was not yesterday. Hopefully they can somehow reverse this trend after a tough first period.
The Wild have a pretty suffocating defensive scheme. Justin Barron is usually pretty creative on the breakout but he couldn't get out from behind his own net as the Wild had two forwards in the offensive zone taking away passing lanes, and three other players clogging up the neutral zone. Resulted in a little flip play from his own goal line that the Wild picked off at the blue line. I have heard of the 1-3-1, but this was like a 2-0-3? That'll be tough to penetrate.
Slafkovsky got a partial breakaway but just couldn't pull the trigger as he lost control trying to deke to the backhand. He has the size, and speed already, just needs to add that touch around the net and he is going to be a force.
The Canadiens had their first really good shift of the game nearly midway through the second period as they moved the puck well around the offensive zone. Kaiden Guhle showed some offensive smarts twice as he jumped into the attacking zone and had a decent scoring chance though the puck hopped over his stick as he tried to fire a one-timer. Then he jumped into the attacking zone in the opposite corner and drew a penatly as he was hauled down. His size and skating are tough to match.
Kaiden Guhle, who we just talked about in the offensive zone, absolutely destroys Kaprizov in the defensive zone with a hard, solid and clean body check. This guy is going to be a tower of power on the blue line for a long time. Just a dangerous player for the other team to face at both ends of the ice.
Brendan Gallagher gets called for.... tripping... but it was just a body check?
The Canadiens missed David Savard when he was out of the lineup. He made a great play while killing a penalty to take one passing land away with his body as he stretched out on the ice but then closed another passing lane as he knocked the puck down with his stick and cleared it away from the Habs net. The Canadiens have a lot of good young defenders, but none that are excellent penalty killers, at least not yet and they can learn a lot from Savard.
Justin Barron got rocked from behind late in the second period and appearently NHL refs have finally realized they are allowed to call that as a penalty. We have seen countless hits from behind lately and it is something the NHL needs to clean up before someone breaks their neck.
Third Period Thoughts
The Canadiens power play did not look great in the first forty minutes, but they connect early in the third to tie the game. It was Slafkovsky who got a shot through traffic and on goal and captain Nick Suzuki tucked in the rebound. Slafkovsky needs to keep shooting more on power play so the opposing team can't overload Caufield's side. A shooting threat from both sides of the ice would give the Canadiens a dangerous power play unit.
Heineman is showing no fear out there in his first NHL game. Not getting a ton of ice time but got in on the forecheck and took a big run at Zach Bogosian and finished off a big hit.
Joel Armia hooks, grabs and hangs on to a Wild player at the blue line for some reason and heads to the box. Just a few seconds into the power play Brock Faber fired a shot from the point that gave the Wild back their lead. Just a foolish penalty to take when the play wasn't in a dangerous area at all, and might have even been offside on the Wild. Weird to see a veteran player take such an obvious penalty at a crucial time in a game.
Jayden Struble got caught in his own end without a stick as he broke it. He was defending behind his own net and for some reason Johnathan Kovacevic decided to join him which left a Wild forward all alone in front and he got the puck with tons of time. Luckily, Montembeault kept it out of the net. Kovacevic has played well for the Canadiens and was a great waiver pickup, but the more games he plays, the more his warts show as his decision making can be questionable at times.
In football, they have a drill they do at the scouting combine called the shuttle run. Players essentially run as quickly as possible in different directions for short distances before changing direction. If they did an on-ice one at the NHL skills competition, I think Mike Matheson would be in the running to win it. He is so good at shaking a defener by just quickly reversing direction and accelerating almost effortlessly. He buys so much time and space all over the ice by just keeping the opposing players guessing which way he will go next.
When you are big and strong, sometimes good things happen just because you stand in front of the net and screen the other team's goalie. Juraj Slafkovsky is rewarded with a late goal as he just went to the net, got hit with a David Savard point shot that then redirected off a Wild defender and into the net. I know the numbers aren't there yet, but I love everything I see from Slafkovsky.
When the NHL changed to a hybrid icing, some linesmen seemed to forget that an important aspect of icing is that the puck actually crosses the goal line. The Canadiens "iced" the puck late in the third period, and Faber was moving about as slowly as an NHL skater can move chasing it down. He actually caught up to it at about the bottom of the circle but didn't touch it and they called it icing anyway. Faceoff back down in the Canadiens zone adn Caufield ended up being called for a hooking penalty as a result.
Nick Suzuki may have saved the game with an incredible shot block with about 1 second to play in regulation. He plays all situations, he scores goals, he gets the puck to Caufield with great passing and he sacrifices the body to block shots. Perfect choice for a captain.