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After a four-game victorious road trip out West, the Habs returned home to host Pittsburgh on Saturday. It was far from a pretty effort but Montreal did just enough to secure the 5-4 victory.
There were a pair of lineup changes in this one for the Canadiens. Martin St. Louis went back to Jacob Fowler in goal after a solid bounce-back effort from Jakub Dobes against the Blues. Meanwhile, Owen Beck returned after sitting three straight in place of Kirby Dach, who is under the weather. There weren’t any moves to be made on the back end, with Mike Matheson’s lower-body injury set to keep him out for the next two weeks. The team lined up as follows:
Caufield – Newhook – Slafkovsky
Bolduc – Danault – Texier
Kreider – Evans – Anderson
F. Xhekaj – Kapanen – Beck
Hutson – Dobson
Guhle – Carrier
A. Xhekaj – Engstrom
Game Points
– One of the worries teams have coming off a long trip is starting slow in the first home game back. It happened here. On the opening shift, Tommy Novak took advantage of some lax coverage and rang one off the post. On the second shift, still before the first whistle, Noah Dobson tripped up Egor Chinakhov, sending the Penguins to the power play. Less than a minute later, it was 1-0 for the visitors, with Erik Karlsson wiring one home from the point as he has done many a time in his career. That was about as bad of a two-minute start as the Habs could have had.
– Fortunately for them, they rebounded quickly. Interestingly, the fourth line got the assignment after the goal. It’s an interesting mix, as all three youngsters are more offence-oriented which is a little weird for a fourth line. But it helped, as on that shift, a pair of well-placed cross-ice passes set up Oliver Kapanen for an against-the-grain one-timer that beat Sergei Murashov. Kapanen needed that goal, given his underwhelming start to the season. That snapped a 23-game pointless streak, dating back to the playoffs.
– The outburst of scoring wasn’t done there. On the next shift, Hendrix Lapierre’s pass from the defensive zone was deflected by Chris Kreider right to Josh Anderson. Anderson isn’t known for his shooting prowess but he wound up picking the corner high-blocker on Murashov to make it 2-1. Maybe he should shoot on his breakaways instead of the tried-and-failed dekes? At any rate, that capped a 57-second stretch with three goals getting on the board.
– The porous defence continued, however. A few minutes later, Sidney Crosby was driving the middle of the ice with Alexandre Carrier and Kaiden Guhle both covering him. That allowed Novak to enter the zone completely unseen on the other side. Two quick passes later and he had an unobstructed lane to the net, putting a quick deke on Jacob Fowler before slipping it five-hole to tie the game. Less than eight minutes in, the teams were on pace for a 15-15 tie. First to 16 wins?
– It looked like another goal was coming for the home side. A drop pass to Cole Caufield allowed the sniper to skate into a shot right through the middle of the ice, beating Murashov high-glove and the lead was restored. Or so it seemed. Pittsburgh challenged for goalie interference, noticing that Guhle’s skate caught Murashov’s at the top of the crease, causing the netminder to lose his balance somewhat. It wasn’t much contact but it was certainly enough to affect his ability to stop the shot so it wasn’t too shocking to see it come off the board fairly quickly.
– Things settled down a little after that. But that’s a low bar to clear. A power play for the Canadiens generated a couple of shots, making it probably the most successful one they’ve had in two weeks. Meanwhile, Pittsburgh’s defence continued to leak, leading to some more scoring chances. However, Murashov settled down after a sluggish start, shutting the door to keep the game tied and allowing something resembling a hockey game to break out after a very strange first half of the first.
– The intermission seemed to bring things back to how they were at the start of the game: Really, really sloppy. That was good news for the Habs, at least. Less than two minutes in, Alexandre Texier played give-and-go with Lane Hutson. On the return feed, Texier was given way too much space, allowing him to cut across the crease and tuck one past Murashov. Pittsburgh’s defence still was nowhere to be seen.
– On the next shift, the fun continued. Arber Xhekaj’s point shot was stopped but Murashov kicked the rebound out to Kreider. He had two unimpeded whacks at the rebound and the second went in. Lapierre was near him by the second one but he’s a centre. Not that Montreal was complaining, but where was the defence again for the Penguins?
– But as was the case in the first, the quick scoring went both ways. A minute and a half later, Karlsson knocked down a clearing attempt from Arber Xhekaj in the Canadiens zone. He settled it down and set up Rickard Rakell who snapped one past Fowler. After a 46-save shutout, he allowed three goals on nine shots to start the game. That’s one way to balance the numbers out somewhat.
– Nick Suzuki was a full participant in the game-day skate, though he didn’t suit up in this one. He looks close to playing and Beck certainly noticed. He brought a physical edge we don’t normally see too often from him, through a hard hit on Kaedan Korczak and then taking a fight with Blake Lizotte. I don’t think that’s going to help him stick around too much longer either way but that’s someone literally fighting for his roster spot.
– The Habs got a good bounce with a little over six minutes to go. Hutson’s point shot hit Anderson and was heading wide of the net. However, it bounced again at the side of the crease off Kris Letang and redirected in. Murashov had no chance on that one and on one of the rare occasions where the Penguins were actually in a good defensive position, it came back to bite them. Go figure.
– Montreal got a late power play when Sidney Crosby tripped Phillip Danault but aside from a quick chance off the faceoff, they couldn’t muster up much. Meanwhile, Fowler was sharp at the end of the period, making a pair of late stops in the dying seconds, the latter a big one off Evgeni Malkin to hold the two-goal lead heading into the third.
– The Habs have had some issues protecting leads in the third where they either get too casual or too passive. The third period was the latter this time. I have no idea if Pittsburgh tightened up their defensive structure as they were largely untested for most of the final frame; the Canadiens instead took a page out of the Alouettes playbook with the ‘bend but try not to break’ defence.
– Neither team did much with their power play in the third. Kreider had a good look late in Montreal’s power play and Danault, playing his 800th career NHL game in this one, had a feeble attempt on a shorthanded breakaway.
– For a while, it looked like the Habs would get through the third unscathed despite basically letting Pittsburgh dictate the play. However, Crosby was able to tap home a bouncing shot with a little over three minutes left, making this more of a nail-biting finish than it needed to be. However, they were able to kill off the rest of the clock and hold on for the one-goal win.
HW Habs 3 Stars
1st Star: Josh Anderson – His hot streak offensively has dried up over the last couple of weeks but he was able to make a big impact in this one with a pair of goals and an assist. He also had a strong game defensively along with a big blocked shot late in the third. These are the types of games that bolster his case for a contract extension.
Stats: 2 goals, 1 assist, +3 rating, 2 shots, 14:58 TOI
2nd Star: Chris Kreider – The veteran has been taking some heat for a lack of production after a good start to the season. This should cool that down for a day or two as he had one of his best efforts of the season. He had a nose for the net all night, a welcome trait on a team that doesn’t have a lot of players willing to do so. Kreider also made a big defensive play in the second period to break up what would have been a Grade A scoring chance.
Stats: 1 goal, 1 assist, +4 rating, 5 shots, 12:10 TOI
3rd Star: Lane Hutson – It wasn’t a defensive clinic for either team but Hutson’s play in the offensive end was sharp, with some key passes plus a shot that set up the eventual winner that was credited to Anderson. Meanwhile, he had several blocks as well and logged the most minutes for either team. Almost feels a little like same old, same old, does it not?
Stats: 2 assists, +4 rating, 1 shot, 4 blocks, 23:47 TOI
