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The Habs looked to finish up January on a winning note as they hosted Minnesota on Thursday. But instead, they were completely shut down offensively, ultimately falling 4-0.
Martin St. Louis made a trio of lineup changes for this one. Two were by choice and one by necessity with Kaiden Guhle’s injury leading to Jayden Struble’s early return on the back end. Up front, Rafael Harvey-Pinard made his season debut in place of Michael Pezzetta who was a healthy scratch. Lastly, Jakub Dobes got the start in goal. The team lined up as follows:
Caufield – Suzuki – Slafkovsky
Newhook – Dach – Laine
Gallagher – Dvorak – Anderson
Harvey-Pinard – Evans – Armia
Matheson – Carrier
Xhekaj – Hutson
Struble – Savard
10 Thoughts
1) Montreal came into this game a bit rested after being off on Wednesday. Minnesota was far from it as they played in Toronto on Wednesday. Thus, the Habs had a chance to take advantage of some tired legs early. Let’s just say that didn’t happen. They managed all of three shots on goal in the opening frame and only had 13 attempts. And their best scoring chance – a two-on-one between Patrik Laine and Christian Dvorak – failed to yield a shot attempt.
2) Having said that, the first period was also one of the best ones the Canadiens have had recently from a defensive standpoint. In a game where they were missing arguably their best defensive defender, the Wild couldn’t muster up much offensively. Considering Dobes had struggled in the first period of his first two home games (maybe call it early jitters?), this was a good thing.
3) I suspect Montreal wasn’t too pleased with the officiating in the first period. Kirby Dach was called for a trip and during the power play, it looked as if Minnesota got away with a very similar play soon after. Former Hab Jon Merrill looked to have gotten away with an extended interference call earlier in the frame as well. This isn’t a big deal in the grand scheme of things (and the Habs killed the Dach penalty with little issue) but with little else to write about from the opening period, it’s worth a mention.
4) Unfortunately for the Habs, there were some defensive cracks in the second and Minnesota took advantage. First, Alexandre Carrier’s defensive coverage saw him hit Dobes, knocking away the goalie’s stick. Dobes then had to use his blocker to cover the five-hole, opening up the far-high side. Liam Ohgren read that and shot exactly there for his first goal of the season.
5) To Montreal’s credit, they had one of their best shifts of the game soon after as the Dvorak line was buzzing in Minnesota’s zone with some strong cycle play. However, Lane Hutson wasn’t able to hold the puck in at the blueline, sending in the Wild on a two-on-one. But Arber Xhekaj wasn’t aware that Marco Rossi was behind him; he forgot to look. Instead, he tried to engage Marcus Foligno and missed, allowing the veteran to easily send a feed to Rossi who had a long breakaway and beat Dobes short-side to double the lead.
6) As was the case in the first period, Montreal’s best chances weren’t even shots on goal. Laine set up Kirby Dach in the slot but he rushed his shot and fired well wide. Later on, Juraj Slafkovsky beat Marc-Andre Fleury with a shot but not the post. In the end, the Habs wrapped up the second with five shots on net in 19 attempts. That was a slight improvement but a pretty low bar to barely clear.
7) Montreal played better offensively in the third period as they started to press a bit more, pinning the Wild back in their defensive zone a little more often. But for the most part, it didn’t amount to too much as Fleury didn’t have to work too hard in his final game against his hometown team.
8) Josh Anderson had quite a shift early in the third. He had four shots hit the net and one miss in the span of 29 seconds with one of his shots being Fleury’s best stop of the game. But it didn’t result in a goal, at least for the home side. David Savard was tied up in Minnesota’s zone which had many calling for a penalty and not long after, both Struble and Alex Newhook failed to clear the puck from Montreal’s end. That allowed Devin Shore to poke the puck away and beat Dobes to put the game out of reach.
9) The Habs did get one power play when Joel Eriksson Ek went off for boarding. It was interesting to see the Wild’s strategy of simply shadowing Laine and effectively making it a four-on-three. The Canadiens quickly adjusted and Cole Caufield got off a couple of decent looks but obviously, they didn’t score. It’s hard to glean anything from one man advantage in a game that clearly wasn’t going their way but it was good to see them adapt.
10) Dobes was pulled with 4:37 to go in an effort to try to generate something offensively. It didn’t work as they couldn’t muster up much of anything even with the extra attacker and with a minute and a half left, Frederick Gaudreau potted the empty-netter, capping a solid road game for the Wild and a home game for the Habs they won’t be too pleased with.
HW Habs 3 Stars
1st Star: Josh Anderson – A good chunk of this stems from that one shift in the third period but his line was Montreal’s best by a country mile in this game with Anderson being the most noticeable of the three. This smaller role seems to be suiting him pretty well as the game-to-game volatility isn’t anywhere near where it was last season.
Stats: 0 points, even rating, 5 shots, 14:48 TOI
2nd Star: Christian Dvorak – Similar to Anderson, he’s here largely thanks to his line having a few solid shifts and scoring chances. Add that to a decent night at the faceoff dot and that’s enough to earn a spot here from this game.
Stats: 0 points, -3 rating, 6 shot attempts, 7/11 faceoffs, 16:05 TOI
3rd Star: Jakub Dobes – This wasn’t an ‘A’ game from him by any stretch but backup goalies aren’t supposed to provide that too often. He made a few key stops, let in at least one he’d probably like back, and generally kept them in the game. That’s a ‘C+’ or so type of effort and all things considered, Montreal would probably be somewhat content with games like that from him. But some goal support would help next time.
Stats: 3 GA on 26 shots, 3.20 GAA, .885 SV%
