Montreal Canadiens: 24 Thoughts On Habs Uneven Effort vs Penguins
The Montreal Canadiens hosted the Pittsburgh Penguins at the Bell Centre last night. The team had a couple of days off after a busy three games in four nights over last weekend.
That ended with a lacklustre 2-1 loss to the Nashville Predators at home as the team looked a little drained. With a couple of nights off they looked refreshed, coming out flying against the surprisingly struggling Penguins who were tied in points with the Habs heading into the contest, though the Canadiens played one more game.
Here are 24 thoughts on the Canadiens 29th game of the season.
First Period Thoughts
Sam Montembeault gest the start and this continues the three goaltender rotation. He last played a week ago against the Los Angeles Kings and then Cayden Primeau faced the Buffalo Sabres and then Jake Allen got the call against the Nashville Predators and now we are back to Montembeault.
This whole goalie rotation is starting to feel a little bit like a peewee team. It is not great to have a goalie play every third game, but it wasn't great early in the season when Primeau was barely playing at all. I am beating a dead horse but the whole situation just doesn't work and the Canadiens need to fix it.
Jesse Ylonen has a lot of tools to be a successful NHL player. He is fast, he is smart, he has a wicked shot and he is well positioned defensively. I really don't think playing him with Michael Pezzetta and Mitchell Stephens is the best spot as I see a player who can be a decent two-way threat if given the chance. He should be up the lineup higher with a center like Sean Monahan or even Christian Dvorak to give him a chance at adding some scoring.
David Savard picked off a Penguins pass right at the blue line and walked into the slot before firing home a quick snap shot. He followed it up with another scoring chance on a pass from Cole Caufield. He has been extremely active in the offensive zone all night. He hasn't piled up points since joining the Habs but has a bit more offense to his game than anyone gives him credit for. Teams are going to be calling about his availability ahead of the trade deadline.
The Penguins defense looks unorganized and confused. The Habs are just zipping around their zone with the puck and have never found it this east to cut into the slot and fire shots on net. Maybe they will want a veteran defender like David Savard.
Jayden Struble would have been described as a stay at home defender with a massive physical presence at the college level. He made a rush last night that made him look like a young Erik Karlsson. He carried the puck out from behind his own net, flew through the neutral zone with possession, deked around one defender and wisely protected the puck before chipping it to a teammate and then heading to the Penguins goal. The puck came back to him and he hammered in his second career goal.
Kaiden Guhle had a run of games earlier this season where he looked like a Chris Pronger clone. Big, fast and physical while producing offense and limiting scoring chances in his own end. He hasn't been at that same level for the last couple games. Development is never linear and this is a bump in the road he can learn from. I would have thought he already knew turning the puck over to Sidney Crosby near his own goal crease was a bad idea, but that is a lesson he had to learn the hard way last night.
Sean Monahan, proof that no season's are completely consistent and we shouldn't be worried about Guhle's little blip, scored his third goal and fourth point in five games after going goalless in 12 and pointless in nine.
Second Period Thoughts
The Canadiens took a couple of early penalties in the second period. That sends out a power play that features Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Erik Karlsson which ranks.... 28th?!?! in the league. I see the Karlsson experiment has not exactly gone smoothly to start the season.
The Canadiens oddly send all four players behind their own net to try and win a puck battle.... they don't and this Sidney Crosby fella gets the puck to a wide open Jake Guentzel. They fire the puck back and forth to each other before Guentzel blasts home a one-timer to pull the game within one. Maybe don't send every player on the ice behind the net while shorthanded next time?
Josh Anderson finally scored a goal this season but he may never beat an NHL goaltender again. He hasd four or five different attempts at what appeared to be a wide open net but he couldn't get it to go over the line. Alex Nedejo... Alex Nejdeko.... Alex Nedelekoo... Tristan Jarry's backup somehow reached his pad across the crease and stopped every Anderson chance.
Juraj Slafkovsky gets called for a super soft hooking call and this 11% Pens power play gets back to work. Crosby fires a shot from from the high slot that is redirected in front and the Habs 3-1 lead has dissolved into a 3-3 game. I think this Crosby guy is going to stick around the NHL for a while yet.
Speaking of Slafkovsky, he is getting chances and creating but not finding the back of the net. That is great, but it feels like we have been talking about the goals that are eventually going to come for a long time now. At some point, those goals and assists have to start actually happening. How growth is undeniable, but the next step now is to start getss actual points instead of chances and we need to see a bit of that soon.
Gustav Lindstrom and Johnathan Kovacevic can't be enjoying watching Struble these days. I wouldn't say either Lindstrom or Kovacevic have played exceptional lately, while Struble looks like a seasoned veteran in his 11st career game. With Jordan Harris returning soon, and able to play the right side comfortably, I don't see a role for Lindstrom at all and Kovacevic is in danger of becoming a healthy scratch.
The Canadiens were lucky not to fall behind heading into the third period. The puck was fired at the net and went in off Crosby but it was a fraction of a second after the buzzer. A rounding error throughout the period saved them a goal against.
Crosby caught former Canadiens (and Penguins) winger Mark Recchi for 13th all-time in NHL points in the second period. The Canadiens have been a big help as Crosby now has 62 points in 47 career games against the Habs.
Third Period Thoughts
Cole Caufield is buzzing more than we have seen recently. He is getting into the slot ot fire shots and creating chances with his speed and by beating defenders to the net. His lack of production is starting to be a concern, but we saw him looking like his best self for most of last night's game.
Christian Dvorak had a great chance, which would have led to a fun offside review, but fired the puck wide of the net. I know he has dealt with injuries and stuff, but one goal in his first 18 games of this season and only ten in 64 games last season is not what the Canadiens had in mind when they gave up first and second round picks for him.
Lars Eller plays for the Penguins and although it has been nearly a decade I still can't figure out why the Canadiens traded him. He was an excellent third line center with a manageable cap hit of $3.5 million for much of his career. An excellent penalty killer and defensive center with size, speed and some skill but the Habs dealt him for a couple of second round picks.
The veteran line of Dvorak, Joel Armia and Brendan Gallagher isn't really doing what you would expect from a trio of older players. You would think they would be smart defensively and limit chances against by being in the right places and refusing to turn the puck over. Instead, they keep getting stuck in their own zone for entire shifts and are not creating much of anything offensively.
The Penguins played last night and it started to show in the third period. The Canadiens had a 10-2 shots on goal advantage about 15 minutes into the frame and were finally starting to take over the play after a dreary second period that saw almost no scoring chances.
NHL refs are funny. David Savard takes a bit of a run at Drew O'Connor and cross checks him and knocks him to the ice when the puck was nowhere near them. This should be a penalty but since there was already a delayed call on O'Connor for goaltender interference, Savard is allowed to cross check him as free retaliation.
It says a lot about both teams depth (or lack thereof) that Evgeni Malkin and Joel Armia took consecutive shots in the shootout. Jansen Harkins would eventually win it for the Pens in round 12 of the shootout.
Canadiens are proving to be a pretty scrappy group. Without Kirby Dach and Alex Newhook they continue to hang around the .500 mark with a record of 12-13-4. It's not fantastic, but with low expectations at the start of the season and injuries to key players it is kind of impressive.