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After extending their losing streak to six over the weekend, the Habs looked to get back in the win column on Monday afternoon. It turned out to be quite the eventful game, one Montreal was able to come out with the 7-5 victory.
Despite the loss on Saturday, Martin St. Louis opted to keep his lineup mostly unchanged in terms of personnel although the lines and pairings were switched up a bit. The only change was between the pipes with Cayden Primeau getting the start. The rest of the team lined up as follows:
Dach – Suzuki – Slafkovsky
Caufield – Evans – Newhook
Anderson – Dvorak – Gallagher
Heineman – Condotta – Armia
Guhle – Matheson
Hutson – Savard
Xhekaj – Struble
10 Thoughts
1) Things were a bit disorganized defensively early on in this one and both teams took advantage. A little more than four minutes in, Christian Dvorak threaded a pass between Buffalo’s last two defenders to spring Josh Anderson on a breakaway, and he beat Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen to open up the scoring. Unfortunately for the Sabres, their last two defenders were Ryan McLeod and Jason Zucker, a pair of forwards. But less than 30 seconds later, Montreal returned the favour. Alex Tuch sent a feed to Tage Thompson past two Hab defenders. Thompson skated around one and beat Cayden Primeau low to tie it up. The two defenders? Cole Caufield and Nick Suzuki. One forward back happens from time to time but two forwards on each team getting caught less than 30 seconds apart? That’s a little less frequent and not ideal.
2) Things did settle down defensively for Montreal after that which was good to see though the rest of the opening frame was relatively low-event. Let’s just say it didn’t stay that way.
3) Montreal had a great chance to take the lead with a two-man advantage fairly early in the second period. Lost among the team-wide struggles lately is the fact the power play has struggled a lot as of late. They didn’t capitalize on the five-on-three but were able to salvage it when Cole Caufield tipped a Lane Hutson pass home. It was another in-tight goal for Caufield who has had a lot of those in the early going over shooting from his ‘normal’ area.
4) Like the first lead, they couldn’t hold this one either. On the next shift, Dylan Cozens tipped a Rasmus Dahlin shot past Primeau to tie it up. Then, on the next shift, Emil Heineman was shaken up blocking a shot, leading to a partial line change. There was only one problem – the Canadiens didn’t have possession of the puck. Bowen Byram was able to get a pass out to Peyton Krebs and the Sabres were off on a two-on-one. Krebs kept it and made no mistake. One of the signs of a team being fragile is allowing quick goals after getting one themselves. It’s safe to say that the team looked more than a little fragile at this point.
5) After the Habs didn’t score on a late power play, it looked like they’d be trailing heading to the third. However, Juraj Slafkovsky was able to set up Nick Suzuki on a mini two-on-one and he beat a sliding Luukkonen to tie it up with 47 seconds left. That would have been a nice ending to the period but they had an even better one. That line stayed out for the next shift and just 22 seconds later, they struck again as Slafkovsky won a board battle and slipped a pass to Suzuki in the slot who beat Luukkonen with a shot that probably should have been stopped. Nonetheless, after getting burned twice on quick goals allowed after scoring, it was good to see one go Montreal’s way to end the period.
6) Buffalo opted to change goalies to start the third although Devon Levi wasn’t tested for a while. We’ll get back to him later. Early in the frame, Jayden Struble was called for delay of game. Primeau made a good stop on J-J Peterka early in the man advantage but off the ensuing draw, Dahlin blasted one home through a screen that Primeau didn’t have much of a chance on. But once again, one goal led to another. Less than two minutes later, Peterka got a half-step on Matheson and slid one underneath Primeau on a save he had to make. St. Louis felt the same way, pulling him for Samuel Montembeault.
7) The goalie switch was particularly interesting. St. Louis is not a big fan of in-period goalie pulls and if you go back, most of the times he has changed things up is when the game has gotten out of hand and it’s either a mercy pull or a way to try to shake it up without using an early timeout. This was not one of those. This was a ‘we still have a shot and Primeau isn’t the guy’ pulls. Those sting a bit more but the pulling was justified. I think he was a bit better than the stat line would suggest but he was not exactly confidence-inspiring, especially on the Peterka goal.
8) To their credit, Montreal eventually started to push back. After not recording a shot in the first half of the period, the fourth line got one…and it went in. Hutson set up Heineman who, instead of firing quickly as he often does, settled the puck down, skated to the middle, and fired it through a screen past Levi. That was a lot of poise for a rookie.
9) The Habs then got a power play a minute later after Dahlin went off for elbowing. The first wave didn’t do much early on but stayed out there. That worked out well this time. Matheson kept the puck in at the blueline and the power play went to work. Eventually, Matheson sent a pass to Caufield in the same style as his first goal. The tip didn’t work this time but the puck went behind the net right to Slafkovsky on the other side. He sent a quick feed to Caufield who hadn’t moved and he had plenty of net to shoot at to give the Habs the lead (on their second shot of the period, no less). Buffalo challenged unsuccessfully for a missed glove pass but the Canadiens couldn’t capitalize on that power play.
10) It wasn’t necessarily the most effective closeout to a game but the Sabres couldn’t muster up much. Eventually, the Habs got a two-on-none but neither Anderson nor Suzuki wanted to get the puck. (Presumably, Anderson wanted Suzuki to take it for the hat-trick.) In the end, Anderson was able to set up Dvorak for the empty-netter to seal a rather bizarre game all things considered.
HW Habs 3 Stars
1st Star: Nick Suzuki – The captain called himself out to an extent recently, talking about how he’s one of many who’s not producing. A four-point effort should end that talk (for a game or two, at least). Suzuki’s two goals late in the second completely turned things around for Montreal.
Stats: 2 goals, 2 assists, +2 rating, 2 PIMS, 4 shots, 21:00 TOI
2nd Star: Juraj Slafkovsky – The puck still isn’t going in for him but he looked a bit more involved in this one while making good plays to set up Suzuki’s goals and Caufield’s winner. On a new-look top line, he certainly made an impression.
Stats: 3 assists, +1 rating, 2 PIMS, 1 shot, 17:17 TOI
3rd Star: Lane Hutson – I could easily go with Caufield and defend that pick but Hutson had a solid game at both ends. He made good plays to set up Caufield’s first goal and Heineman’s tying marker in the third and there were a couple of efforts where he hustled back to break up rush opportunities the other way. After more of a conservative game against Toronto, this was a more eventful game (in a good way) for the rookie.
Stats: 2 assists, +1 rating, 1 shot, 2 giveaways, 2 takeaways, 23:44 TOI
