After getting shut out in the first half of Super Bowl weekend, the Habs looked to salvage the second half on Sunday against Tampa Bay. They played well enough to get the win but came up short again, falling 5-3.
Martin St. Louis made a pair of lineup changes from the loss to New Jersey. The first was in goal with Jakub Dobes getting the start. Meanwhile, Jayden Struble returned in place of Logan Mailloux while Michael Pezzetta was once again a healthy scratch as the rest of the team lined up as follows:
Caufield – Suzuki – Slafkovsky
Newhook – Dach – Anderson
Beck – Dvorak – Gallagher
Laine – Evans – Armia
Matheson – Hutson
Struble – Carrier
Xhekaj – Savard
10 Thoughts
1) Defensively, the Habs only made a couple of mistakes in the opening period. The problem was that both of them were of the very bad variety. Juraj Slafkovsky had the first just before the seven-minute mark, sending an ill-advised pass to Cole Caufield that was easily picked off by Brandon Hagel. With Montreal heading up-ice in transition, Hagel found Nick Paul behind coverage. Paul didn’t have much room but out-waited Dobes and roofed a backhander to open the scoring. That was the end of Slafkovsky being on the top line.
2) Then it was the defence’s turn to make a bad mistake. Lane Hutson tried an ill-advised pinch, sending in Tampa Bay on a four-on-one. Struble then compounded the problem, trying to cut off the play on the sideboards, completely oblivious to the fact he had no support. (This happened to Arber Xhekaj a couple of weeks ago, clearly they need to work on taking a look to see who’s behind them before making a decision like that.) Gage Goncalves found Victor Hedman on an uncontested breakaway (that was really a two-on-none) and made no mistake. Two shots, two goals allowed, and two that Dobes didn’t have any help on.
3) To their credit, the Habs responded quite well, getting a flurry of chances. However, Andrei Vasilevskiy was up to the task and Emil Lilleberg saved a goal as well. Then it was time to add injury to insult as a Lightning clearing attempt caught Alexandre Carrier in the face, sending him to the room and putting Montreal down to five defencemen for the time being although he returned for the second period. Meanwhile, Josh Anderson had Montreal’s second penalty shot in less than 24 hours but fired wide. Perhaps there’s a reason he’s only had three career attempts in the shootout.
4) The Canadiens got another chance late in the period when Darren Raddysh was sent off for high-sticking. It looked like it was going to be another momentum-sapping advantage as the first unit struggled mightily but in the dying seconds, Alex Newhook skated the puck in Tampa Bay’s zone and dropped a pass for Brendan Gallagher. His quick shot seemed to surprise Vasilevskiy and beat him short-side. For all the chances they had earlier, they were owed a lucky break (and maybe more than one).
5) Montreal had a minute and a half left in a carry-over penalty and with how things were going, they needed to kill it off. It didn’t happen. Late in the advantage, Dobes tried to poke the puck away but fell instead. He wasn’t able to get up (nor did he make a great effort to) and the puck quickly went from Jake Guentzel to Brayden Point who buried the empty-netter, ending Dobes’ afternoon in the process. The talk of him being the new number one was laughably premature before but even his most ardent supporters might want to stick in a pin in that for now.
6) Samuel Montembeault came in and was tested early with a point-blank stop. But it wasn’t long before Montreal’s defensive miscues came back to bite him. Off a won faceoff, Mikey Eyssimont got control and sent a pass to Cam Atkinson. David Savard sprawled to block the pass but it still got through while Zemgus Girgensons caught Xhekaj puck-watching and was able to get inside position; from there, it was an easy tap-in for Girgensons’ first of the season. Remember when Girgensons was supposed to be Latvia’s big star player? That never really happened and now he’s trying to hang on as a fourth liner.
7) Remember the thought about the Habs being owed more than one lucky break offensively? They actually got it with a little over seven minutes left in the second after Montreal had some good shifts following the 4-1 goal. Slafkovsky came in on the left side and sent a shot through that caught the post and bounced back to Savard at the point. He sent a quick feed to Christian Dvorak and while Dvorak didn’t get much of a shot off, it was through a screen and caught Vasilevskiy off-guard, beating him to cut the deficit to two. That was his 99th career NHL goal; will he get to #100 in a Montreal uniform?
8) When the Habs didn’t score on an early power play, I thought that was it for the Habs getting back into it. But Gallagher really made it interesting near the midway point when he intercepted a weak clearing attempt and beat Vasilevskiy glove-side through a screen to make it a one-goal game. All three of Montreal’s goals were on shots that weren’t necessarily the most dangerous but the veteran netminder seemed to struggle through screens. It feels like that’s the type of thing the video coaches might want to file away for future use.
9) The Habs kept pressing and Tampa Bay was surprisingly content to sit back which gave Montreal several good chances while Mike Matheson did well to disrupt a late Girgensons breakaway to keep the deficit at one. But despite their best efforts, they couldn’t get the equalizer, setting the stage for Anthony Cirelli to bury the empty netter with 15 seconds left.
10) I want to take a moment to highlight Slafkovsky. After being demoted following his mistake that led to the Paul goal, he didn’t sulk. Honestly, he played with more fire than we’ve seen from him on a bit of an odd trio with Dvorak and Gallagher that was Montreal’s best on the day. It was nice to see him respond positively to St. Louis cracking the whip, so to speak.
HW Habs 3 Stars
1st Star: Brendan Gallagher – He came into this one with just two goals in his last 19 games but doubled that in this one. Both were decent shots but not of the high-danger variety but it didn’t matter. It took some time for the Habs to find their skating legs but a lot of their momentum seemed to come from when his line was on the ice.
Stats: 2 goals, even rating, 2 shots, 2 hits, 13:50 TOI
2nd Star: Mike Matheson – It hasn’t always been pretty in terms of his defensive play but he made two key plays to stop potential breakaway chances. Offensively, he adjusted to a bit of a rotation of partners at times and had a hand in their power play goal. That’s a good step in the right direction after some rougher outings.
Stats: 1 assist, even rating, 2 PIMS, 5 shots, 2 hits, 23:31 TOI
3rd Star: Christian Dvorak – It’s games like this that make me think there’s a chance management could opt to try to re-sign him if they can’t get Evans under contract. Having a left-shot option on the draw came in handy several times in this game while offensively, he was much more involved than usual. He’s capable of making this type of impact regularly, now it’s just about figuring out how to do just that.
Stats: 1 goal, +1 rating, 2 shots, 4 hits, 12/19 faceoffs, 14:43 TOI