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After kicking off the season with a win against a divisional rival, the Habs looked to beat another rival Thursday in Boston. This one wasn’t anything like Wednesday’s affair with the Canadiens falling short by a score of 6-4.
Martin St. Louis opted to make a pair of lineup changes for this one. Cayden Primeau got the nod in goal after Samuel Montembeault’s very busy night against the Maple Leafs while Oliver Kapanen made his NHL debut, replacing Emil Heineman. The team lined up as follows:
Caufield – Suzuki – Slafkovsky
Newhook – Dach – Armia
Anderson – Evans – Gallagher
Barre-Boulet – Dvorak – Kapanen
Matheson – Guhle
Hutson – Savard
Xhekaj – Barron
Primeau
10 Thoughts
1) After Boston lost their opening game and having their home opener, surviving the first few minutes was going to be important. Primeau upped the level of difficulty with an early tripping penalty. On the power play, he was beat by a point shot but Justin Brazeau got a piece of his stick, negating the goal. The Habs survived the rest of the power play but the Bruins’ offensive strategy was a sign of things to come.
2) Montreal got a man advantage three minutes after Primeau’s penalty ended when Kirby Dach drew a holding call on Nikita Zadorov. The top unit didn’t do much and even the second unit looked a bit discombobulated. However, Brad Marchand threw an open-ice hit on Alex Newhook, allowing Lane Hutson to scamper up the ice with some room. The Canadiens moved the puck quickly, eventually creating a mini two-on-one with Marchand not in position. Joel Armia sent it in front for Brendan Gallagher who tipped it home. Quick puck movement on the power play, it’s a real difference-maker.
3) Armia took a tripping penalty a little past the midway mark. This time, Boston’s goal counted. After a lost draw, Christian Dvorak and David Savard collided, basically making it a five-on-two for a couple of seconds. That was all Charlie McAvoy needed to send a clean point shot past Primeau to tie it up. Early-season defensive positioning, clearly still a work in progress.
4) Cole Caufield restored the lead after being the beneficiary of a clean shot-pass (something we didn’t see much of from Montreal last year). Once again, he was down at the goal line, not his usual scoring area. But hey, whatever works. However, Boston got that back barely a minute later with Mark Kastelic firing a shot from distance past Primeau. It was a clean shot, no doubt, but it was clear Boston didn’t think Primeau could track the puck on long shots and they were correct.
5) Defensive zone inconsistency was an issue against Toronto and it was again in the opening 20 minutes. There were too many times that Montreal couldn’t clear the traffic in front of the net, nor could they clear the zone comfortably. It came back to bite them late when Elias Lindholm redirected yet another point shot, this time from Zadorov, past Primeau to give them their first lead of the game. It was an eventful opening 20 minutes, one that Montreal might have been fortunate to only escape being down one.
6) Before getting back into the defensive zone struggles that bit them again in the second, I wanted to highlight Josh Anderson on the penalty kill. He hit the post on an early kill and nearly picked off a drop pass on their other man advantage. There’s room for some opportunism shorthanded and he’s the type of player who should, in theory at least, be able to take advantage from time to time.
7) And now, back to the defensive struggles. Montreal survived most of the second period unscathed but with a little over four minutes to go, Pavel Zacha won a board battle behind the net and sent it to David Pastrnak who was wide open in the slot. One of the top scorers in the league is not the person to forget about. Gallagher noticed just a bit too late, giving Pastrnak a shot to go high-glove on Primeau and he made no mistake.
8) Less than a minute later, Justin Barron made an error with his skating mechanics coming back in transition. That allowed John Beecher to get a half-step on him and get a shot off. Primeau made the stop but didn’t control the rebound with Cole Koepke stepping in to poke it home. The Habs did little with an end-of-period power play as once again, the puck movement was slow, not quick like on the Gallagher goal.
9) Martin St. Louis elected to change up the lines for the third and if the goal was to spark them, it did. Near the midway mark, Anderson tipped a Kaiden Guhle point shot home to make it 5-3. Kapanen picked up his first NHL point on the play. That made it interesting. Then with a little over four minutes left, Jake Evans sent a pass to Gallagher in the slot who rifled it home. That made it really interesting, or at least it should have.
10) In the end, it was only really interesting for a few seconds. Primeau’s rough night ended on a very low note. Just seconds after Gallagher’s goal, Kastelic sent a pass from behind the goal line out front. It went off Primeau’s stick and in. That simply cannot happen and killed any shot of a comeback. It’s only one game but Primeau certainly did not help his cause in this one.
HW Habs 3 Stars
1st Star: Brendan Gallagher – While I’m not ready to call this a later-career resurgence, Gallagher has had a couple of nice games to start his season. This was more of a throwback game for the veteran, one that saw him score in tight, generate some other chances, and overall just made things happen.
Stats: 2 goals, even rating, 5 shots, 15:23 TOI
2nd Star: Lane Hutson – I keep telling myself to keep expectations low; he’s a rookie after all. But this was a game that demonstrated he could already be a catalyst for Montreal’s offence, being involved in the first two goals of the game. The defensive play will be a work in progress – he had some rough moments in this one – but it’s quickly becoming clear that he can be an impact player quickly.
Stats: 2 assists, +2 rating, 2 PIMS, 2 blocks, 22:48 TOI
3rd Star: Kaiden Guhle – I recognize that it looks weird that I complained about the defence and then gave two of three stars to defencemen. But Guhle was decent in his own end and also had a hand in two of Montreal’s goals. He’s still working his way into playing form after missing the preseason so to have this type of game on a back-to-back is encouraging.
Stats: 2 assists, +3 rating, 2 hits, 3 blocks, 21:23 TOI
