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The Habs needed to pick up a point in their final two games against Edmonton in order to officially lock down a playoff spot.  They couldn’t secure a win to give them a shot at catching Winnipeg for third but did enough to back into the final spot in the North.

The Week That Was

May 10: Oilers 4, Canadiens 3 (OT) – The return of Paul Byron resulted in some shuffling of the lines with a checking line of him, Jake Evans, and Artturi Lehkonen being created.  Forget the checking part of it though as that line scored all three goals (one each) with Lehkonen’s marker in the third standing as the tying goal that got them to overtime.  (Thankfully, Mikko Koskinen was in net for Edmonton as he might have been the only NHL goalie to let that shot in.)  Connor McDavid picked up the winner in overtime to give the Oilers the extra point.

May 12: Oilers 4, Canadiens 3 (OT) – With the game being meaningless in the standings, Dominique Ducharme opted to rest several veterans, a wise move for sure.  What was left of Montreal’s lineup held their own against Edmonton’s predominantly ‘A’ squad though to be fair, it was a meaningless game for them as well.  Cole Caufield and Nick Suzuki had strong games up front to pick up the goals for the Habs while Dominik Kahun picked up the winner for the Oilers in the first shift of overtime.  Thankfully, there isn’t any three-on-three overtime anymore this season.

StatPack

Skaters:

# Player GP G A +/- PIMS SOG ATOI
8 Ben Chiarot 2 0 1 E 2 3 23:43
14 Nick Suzuki 2 2 0 +1 4 5 19:51
15 Jesperi Kotkaniemi 2 0 0 -1 0 2 11:56
17 Josh Anderson 1 0 0 -2 0 3 17:03
21 Eric Staal 1 0 0 E 0 3 14:14
22 Cole Caufield 2 1 1 +1 0 7 16:01
26 Jeff Petry 1 0 0 E 0 1 24:52
27 Alexander Romanov 2 0 0 -1 0 0 16:37
28 Jon Merrill 2 0 0 -2 0 1 15:36
32 Erik Gustafsson 1 0 0 E 0 2 18:24
40 Joel Armia 2 0 0 +2 2 5 14:35
41 Paul Byron 2 1 1 +2 0 4 14:52
43 Xavier Ouellet 1 0 0 +2 0 2 17:10
44 Joel Edmundson 1 0 0 +3 0 1 19:46
56 Jesse Ylonen 1 0 0 E 0 1 11:23
60 Alex Belzile 1 0 0 E 0 2 12:48
62 Artturi Lehkonen 2 1 2 +1 0 4 15:34
67 Michael Frolik 1 0 0 E 0 1 12:41
71 Jake Evans 2 1 2 +1 0 2 16:42
73 Tyler Toffoli 1 0 0 E 0 0 19:55
77 Brett Kulak 2 0 0 E 0 3 22:48
90 Tomas Tatar 2 0 0 -3 0 3 13:23
94 Corey Perry 2 0 0 -1 0 2 16:15

Goalies:

# Player Record GAA SV% SO
30 Cayden Primeau 0-0-1 3.97 .818 0
34 Jake Allen 0-0-1 3.83 .886 0

Team Leaders:

Goals: Tyler Toffoli (28)
Assists: Jeff Petry (30)
Points: Tyler Toffoli (44)
+/-: Joel Edmundson (+28)
PIMS: Ben Chiarot (50)
Shots: Tyler Toffoli (158)

News And Notes

– With the Habs resting regulars in the season finale, Xavier Ouellet and Jesse Ylonen were brought up from Laval with the latter making his NHL debut.  Following the game, the two of them were sent back to Laval along with Alex Belzile and Cayden Primeau.

– Laval will have further reinforcements for their final game as Carey Price and Brendan Gallagher were sent down on conditioning loans.  Price is expected to play in half the game.

– Joel Edmundson’s run for the league-wide plus/minus title came up just short.  He finished the year at +28, two behind Mikko Rantanen.

– With his goals in the finale against Edmonton, Nick Suzuki locked in his second ‘A’ bonus worth $145,122.  That means he received both that was he eligible for.  As for Alexander Romanov, he tied for third in blocked shots which gets him the $145,122 as well.  Between those and Cole Caufield’s small games played bonus, Montreal wound up going over the cap which means they’ll be looking at a small bonus overage penalty for next season.

Last Game’s Lines:

Armia – Suzuki – Caufield
Lehkonen – Evans – Byron
Tatar – Kotkaniemi – Perry
Belzile – Frolik – Ylonen

Kulak – Chiarot
Romanov – Ouellet
Merrill – Gustafsson

The Series Ahead

The Habs will match up with Toronto for the first round, a team that they didn’t have a lot of success against this season.  In their ten games, Montreal managed just three wins and were outscored 34-25.  Carey Price had a save percentage of just .868 against the Maple Leafs in his four starts, the lowest against any Canadian opponent.  With him being expected to be ready for the series opener, they will him to be much better if they want to have a chance in this series.  For anyone wondering, Jake Allen had a .907 SV% against Toronto, matching his SV% for the regular season.

While Montreal will have several players back for this series (Price, Shea Weber, Brendan Gallagher, and Phillip Danault are all expected to suit up Thursday), Toronto will be healthier as well with Nick Foligno, Zach Hyman, Zach Bogosian, and Frederik Andersen all returning although Jack Campbell has been announced as the starter for Game One.

Series Schedule

Game 1: May 20
Game 2: May 22
Game 3: May 24
Game 4: May 25
Game 5: May 27*
Game 6: May 29*
Game 7: May 31*

* – if necessary

Final Thought

It has been a rocky season for Brett Kulak who has been in and out of the lineup, on the right and left side, and his play has been erratic at times regardless of what the advanced stats say.  He had a lot at stake over the last few games as he tried to prove that he’s worthy of using in the playoffs after he fell behind Jon Merrill (and even Erik Gustafsson) on the depth chart.  To his credit, he helped his cause.  Part of that was both Merrill and Alexander Romanov struggling mightily on the third pairing but Kulak played a bit more controlled after getting caught being a little overaggressive at times before that.  Is that going to be enough to keep him in the lineup when Shea Weber returns?  It’s hard to say and it wouldn’t be surprising to see some mixing and matching where he could be in and out.  But I would still say it’s mission accomplished for Kulak as he appears to have gone from the outside looking in to being in the mix once again.  When Merrill and Gustafsson were added a month ago, it looked like his playing time was going to be all but gone.  That shouldn’t be the case anymore and he has his play to thank for that.