After an impressive win over Florida on Tuesday, the Habs looked to make it back-to-back wins as they hosted Tampa Bay on Thursday. However, they couldn’t overcome a disastrous second period, falling 7-4.
Not surprisingly, Martin St. Louis didn’t want to make too many changes after their victory against the Panthers. The one alteration came between the pipes as Cayden Primeau got the nod while the rest of the team lined up as follows:
Caufield – Suzuki – Slafkovsky
Gallagher – Newhook – Armia
Anderson – Evans – Ylonen
Pezzetta – White – Harvey-Pinard
Matheson – Guhle
Xhekaj – Savard
Struble – Harris
10 Thoughts
1) The Habs aren’t often a fast-starting team but they got off to a good start in this one. A couple of minutes in, Montreal made a few quick passes in the offensive zone, leading to a slot shot from Brendan Gallagher. His shot was stopped but Matt Tomkins kicked out the rebound. Joel Armia was right there and put a good upper-cut swing on it, batting it into the net. Don’t look now but he’s now tied for second on the team for even-strength goals. Don’t think many saw that coming after he cleared waivers at the beginning of the season.
2) It wasn’t all good news at the start, however. Soon after, Kaiden Guhle was boarded by Nikita Kucherov and was down for a few moments. The play was blown dead but no penalty was assessed. It was the textbook definition of a boarding call and technically, since it injured him (he didn’t return to the game), it could have qualified as a major penalty which would have taken Kucherov out of the game. Don’t get me wrong, I thought it was worthy of a minor and not a major but the potential for it to be elevated was there.
3) The lack of absence of Kucherov proved noteworthy soon after. After a skirmish in front of Montreal’s net that saw the Habs wind up with the extra penalty (an outcome that certainly perplexed St. Louis), Kucherov kick-started the tying goal. He sent a pass to Brayden Point whose initial attempt was stopped but Nick Paul slipped in behind the defence to tap the puck into a wide-open net to tie the game just before the midway point of the period. The Habs got a power play soon after but the best way to describe the advantage is that halfway through, I’d completely forgotten they had the advantage; the play was that even. Special teams were special for one team and definitely not the other.
4) Jayden Struble has done well keeping up with the pace of NHL players for the most part; he hasn’t been burned too often. But he was burned with a little over three minutes left when Mikey Eyssimont blew by him and chipped one past Primeau who had to contend with a snow shower soon after to make matters more frustrating for him. In Struble’s defence, he was trying to hedge against a possible two-on-one with Arber Xhekaj caught up ice but he wasn’t decisive enough which helped contribute to the opportunity. Part of the growing pains for young defencemen but that one will probably come up on the game film to review on Friday.
5) The second line had some good pressure near the five-minute mark of the second, aided partially for a small moment by Rafael Harvey-Pinard’s helmet. Eventually, Alex Newhook got the puck to Armia in the slot and he fired his second of the night past Tomkins. That tied his career-high in goals.
6) But things went downhill from there. Three minutes later, Montreal tried a partial line change with Tampa Bay in the offensive zone. Not surprisingly, it didn’t end well as Anthony Cirelli sent a cross-ice feed to a wide-open Steven Stamkos who quickly gave the Lightning the lead back. 90 seconds later, a failed clearing pass went straight to Paul who rifled it high past Primeau. After a stretch where the Habs have had some competitive games, I was hoping to see the Canadiens get a bit of pushback going.
7) That didn’t happen. Not long after Mike Matheson’s first tripping penalty ended, Primeau allowed a brutal goal of the stick of Brandon Hagel, putting an end to any hopes of a comeback quickly. Tampa then scored on Matheson’s second tripping penalty with Kucherov one-timing a shot past Primeau, one he had no chance on. Not a great few minutes for Matheson with two penalties leading to two goals less than five minutes apart.
8) I’ll give the Habs credit. They woke up in the third though it was a case of too little, too late. First, they did a nice job killing off the bulk of a Struble double-minor that carried over and then the top line went to work with one of their stranger goals of the year. Nick Suzuki won a faceoff but broke his stick on the play. The puck and part of the stick went to Arber Xhekaj at the point. He fired both of them, the stick going sideways and the puck toward the net where Juraj Slafkovsky tipped it home.
9) Three minutes later, Cole Caufield made it interesting, picking a tough-angle corner off a setup from Suzuki from behind the net. To this point of the game, the top line had been quiet but all of a sudden, had a productive night. That’s a positive sign that even when they’re not dominating, they can still strike quickly and change that. Tampa added a late empty-netter from Stamkos but the fact it got to the point where there was a case to pull the goalie was a decent sign for the Habs given how the second period went; they at least finished relatively strong.
10) No need to sugarcoat it, this was a rough game for Primeau. It seems to me that he’s struggling with the same thing Samuel Montembeault did when he first came to Montreal. Most nights, Primeau is either good or bad. You might be thinking those are the two options but what about just average? Or decent? Or poor? How about mediocre? All of those are still an upgrade on bad. If a goalie lands on the two most extreme outcomes most times out, he becomes too much of a risk to play before long. Frankly, that was the biggest concern I had with Montembeault for quite a while. This is something a lot of young goalies have to deal with and Primeau is clearly no exception. He needs to find that middle ground way more often to take that next step in his development.
HW Habs 3 Stars
1st Star: Joel Armia – He scored the first two goals of the game, both coming in dangerous areas (the crease and the slot). His board work was good. Even without the goals, the fundamental play is what has allowed Armia to have his best extended stretch with Montreal. It was nice to see him rewarded for that once again.
Stats: 2 goals, -1 rating, 3 shots, 18:57 TOI
2nd Star: Alex Newhook – Newhook made some good plays with the puck on his stick which helped lead to Armia’s tallies but I also liked his intensity while he had a few good moments defensively as well. The line he’s anchoring is a mismash of talent but it’s working right now and Newhook is a big reason for that.
Stats: 2 assists, 2 PIMS, 1 shot, 17:11 TOI
3rd Star: Juraj Slafkovsky – The top line had one of its quieter nights but Slafkovsky was the most noticeable of the trio in this one. With Tomkins struggling with rebound control, I liked that Slafkovsky had a quick trigger, trying to capitalize on that. The youngster keeps on getting better.
Stats: 1 goal, 1 assist, +1 rating, 6 shots, 22:44 TOI