As the Habs continued to battle other teams “in the mix”–or “on the bubble”–it was time for the New Jersey Devils to visit Montreal this Saturday night. The Canadiens were coming off several sluggish games with correspondingly weak results, and this game would be a test for the young Habs team, to see whether they could ratchet their game back up.
Alas, they again seemed to lack intensity, with only about 20 minutes of strong play, and made repeated defensive errors that resulted in goals against. A fight-back at the beginning of the third period enabled them to take the game into overtime, but that was only thanks to Jakub Dobes’s acrobatics late in the third. And once Jack Hughes sealed the result with an overtime breakaway goal, the Habs really should count themselves lucky to have come away from this game with at least a single point.
Starting Lines
Caufield – Suzuki – Slafkovsky
Laine – Dach – Newhook
Anderson – Evans – Armia
Pezzetta – Dvorak – Gallagher
Hutson – Matheson
Guhle – Carrier
Xhekaj – Savard
Dobes
Montembeault
Ten Thoughts
1) After a sluggish game (and a loss) in Detroit, the Canadiens came out with more energy in the first period. Kirby Dach had a good scoring chance less than two minutes in, but shot wide. Josh Anderson and Juraj Slafkovsky followed with their own chances, both of them also shooting wide. And Patrik Laine finally got the puck on net on his chance five minutes in, only to be denied by former Montreal netminder Jake Allen.
2) Alas, that energy somehow dissipated once the Devils started to apply some pressure in the Montreal zone. The “modified hybrid” defensive system was showing cracks and worse, and New Jersey forwards were springing free with regularity.
3) With five minutes in, the piper finally arrived, looking for a payment. Stefan Noesen made a clean zone entry along the right-side boards and sent the puck around the boards to Jesper Bratt, near the left-side blue line. Bratt skated in toward the goal, evading Joel Armia, Jake Evans, and Mike Matheson, who were all converging on him–and then spotted the puck to Nico Hischier at the edge of the blue ice. From there, Hischier tapped the puck into the empty side of the net, with Dobes stuck on the opposite side.
4) And on his next shift, Bratt struck again. He took a pass from Dougie Hamilton at the end boards and then curled around the back of the net and to the faceoff circle, all the time pursued by Kaiden Guhle. Guhle was unable to contain him, though, and Bratt snapped off a backhander that surprised Dobes and gave the Devils a 2-0 lead. The Habs’ early effort had been for naught, as they fell apart under New Jersey pressure.
5) The second period started with the same pattern: good energy and Montreal pressure, with early scoring chances by Evans and Cole Caufield, but this time the Canadiens at least had something to show for it, as Nick Suzuki got the bleu blanc et rouge on the board. Slafkovsky won a puck battle on the right-side boards, allowing Caufield to pick up the puck. Caufield made a tide cross-ice pass to Suzuki, and the captain one-timed it past Allen from the hash marks to bring the score within one.
6) Unfortunately the pattern repeated, and, just like in the first, the Habs were unable to sustain the pressure on the Devils, and the visitors again controlled much of the play. This time it was Tomas Tatar, another former Montreal player doing the damage. Tatar won a puck battle on the boards against Matheson, fell down with Matheson, got up, and skated to the net to cause havoc there, much like his former linemate, Brendan Gallagher. He ended up being able to swat a loose puck behind Dobes to regain a two-goal lead for New Jersey.
7) Somehow this re-energized the Habs much more than the Suzuki goal had, and the red sweaters were once again swarming all over the New Jersey zone. But it was a three-man rush with Suzuki, Slafkovsky, and Caufield that did the damage and got the game back within one. Nick Suzuki made a great decision on the rush, dropping the puck back to Caufield; the young sniper curled over in front of the net, fooled Johnathan Kovacevic and Jack Hughes on the play, and shot the puck into the far top corner of the net as Allen was trying to follow him across.
8) And the third period? Would you ever have guessed five minutes of Montreal domination, followed by New Jersey pressure? Again, the pressure paid dividends, this time on a set play from an offensive faceoff. Suzuki beat Ondrej Palat on the puck drop and got the puck back to Guhle at the point. Guhle sent it across to Alexandre Carrier, who slammed the puck past Allen to tie the game.
9) The remainder of the period was full of New Jersey shots on Dobes, punctuated by Montreal counterattacks. Outshot 13-7 and with a 1.92-0.73 xG edge for the Devils, the Habs were able to maintain the tie score only thanks to the repeated scrambles and acrobatic saves by Dobes.
10) The three-on-three overtime looked better with Montreal takeaways and scoring chances, but ultimately it was yet another mistake that cost them. As Laine sent a cross-ice pass over to Matheson, the veteran defender was unable to control the puck, and Timo Meier skated away with it, Jack Hughes joining him on the attack. While Matheson was pursuing Meier, the puck was already on Hughes’s stick, and with Laine and Jake Evans far behind the play, Hughes effectively had a breakaway on Dobes, and he made no mistake in putting the game away and enabling the Devils to leave for home with the full two points.
HW Habs Three Stars
First Star: Cole Caufield (1g, 1a, 4 shots, +3, 17:49 TOI) once again showed that he can do so much more than just a one-timer from the bottom of the circle, undressing two defencemen on the way to scoring his 25th goal of the season. Add to that the pretty pass to Suzuki on the first goal, and there is no question that Caufield earned the top star.
Second Star: Alexandre Carrier (1g, 0a, 2 shots, +1, 22:57 TOI) has been a quiet yet highly stabilizing presence since arriving in Montreal in exchange for Justin Barron. He has never been, and likely never will be, about offence and scoring, but he certainly was pumped about scoring his first goal. Even without that goal, he would deserve a star as he and Kaiden Guhle controlled play, remorselessly keeping the Bratt-Hughes-Palat line away from Dobes and shooting from the outside.
Third Star: Jakub Dobes (44 shots, 40 saves, .909 save percentage, 0.11 GSAx) recorded his first loss, albeit an overtime one, as he couldn’t stop the Hughes breakaway. However, after allowing two early goals, he kept the Habs in the game in the second and third periods, frequently emulating his countryman, Dominik Hasek in making acrobatic yet unorthodox saves to keep the puck out of the net.