10 Thoughts: Habs wrap up the preseason with 4-2 loss to the Sens

The Canadiens made the trip up the 417 to visit the Senators with a much-scaled-back roster, with Kent Hughes and Martin St-Louis keeping the top players out of the lineup so as to not risk any further injuries. As it was, Alex Newhook was the only top-six forward making the trip, and on defence, Lane Hutson, Mike Matheson and David Savard all sat the game out.

Unsurprisingly, the young–the oldest defender was 23–and AHL-heavy line-up struggled against the Senators and particularly Linus Ullmark’s goaltending. The 4-2 final could have been closer if not for some giveaways and defensive faux pas, but, overall, the team played a more disciplined game, mostly staying out of the box and making concerted efforts on Ullmark’s net.

Montreal’s Lines

Gallagher – Evans – Anderson
Newhook – Kapanen – Roy
Heineman – Dvorak – Barre-Boulet
Pezzetta – Gignac – Condotta

Engstrom – Guhle
Xhekaj – Mailloux
Trudeau – Barron

Montembeault
Dobes

10 Thoughts

#1: The Senators set the tone early: as the Habs gained the puck after an initial Ottawa attack and were about to move the puck out, Joshua Roy handed the puck to Michael Amadio. A quick pass, and it was a two-on-one in front of Samuel Montembeault, with only Kaiden Guhle to defend against Noah Gregor and Shane Pinto. Montembeault gave up a rebound on the Gregor shot, and Pinto tapped it in to give Ottawa a lead after just 44 seconds. Ouch.

#2: Meanwhile, Arber Xhekaj was clearly a marked man after his battles in these teams’ previous game. Zack MacEwen jumped him on his first shift on the ice, in some kind of interpretation of the hockey code. The Sheriff dispatched the equally big MacEwen relatively easily, and this time it was MacEwen with the extra penalty.

#3: The Montreal power play was 0-for-a-lot for the preseason, but one needs to keep in mind that in most games the power play lineup had minimal resemblance to what we will see in the regular season. Of today’s crew, Newhook will likely be on one of the units, and Brendan Gallagher and/or Josh Anderson might see action on PP2, but otherwise, no one else is likely to clock any substantial TOI in a man-advantage situation, at least for the Canadiens.

#4: That said, the primary power play unit, usually with at least  Newhook, Roy, Oliver Kapanen, and Adam Engstrom actually looked better than one might expect for a group that had had no power play experience together in the preseason games and only minimal practice.

#5: On the flip side, The Canadiens were called for two consecutive tripping penalties, with first Michael Pezzetta and then Christian Dvorak heading to the box. Pinto scored his second of the night on the two-man advantage, tipping a knee-high shot down just in front of Montembeault to beat the Montreal goaltender. Not much a goaltender can do on those shots.

#6: Guhle made a beautiful, bone-crunching body check on Matthew Highmore, attracting a scrum of Ottawa players on what was a perfectly legal play. The extra penalty went to the Senators, but why on earth should Guhle have been tagged with any penalty at all on this play?  Highmore, meanwhile, left the game and did not return.

#7: The Habs finally got on the board 75 seconds before the end of the first period. Breaking into the Ottawa zone three-on-two, Dvorak tried to pass to Barre-Boulet but the pass was blocked. However, he didn’t give up, and there was a battle for the puck to the left of Linus Ullmark. Brendan Gallagher, veteran of many a net-front battle, got the puck across to Dvorak, and the much-maligned centre tucked it in on Ullmark’s right for his second of the preseason.

#8: The power play got more painful in the second period, as the breakout from the Habs’ defensive zone was rather discombobulated. The puck was passed to Newhook, but he gave the puck away to Pinto, who skated in hard and across the front of the Montreal net. Montembeault slid across but Pinto was able to use his backhand to tuck the puck in between Montembeault’s right pad and the post for his first NHL hat trick (yeah, in the preseason) and a 4-1 lead.

#9: The Senators created their own penalty trouble in the third, when a too-many-men penalty was followed by Gregor flipping the puck over the glass. The Habs were unable to get the puck into the net in the 42 seconds that they had a two-man advantage, but, as they continued the pressure beyond the end of the penalties, Xhekaj got the job done, bouncing a hard shot off Cole Reinhart to surprise Ullmark and narrow the gap to 4-2.

#10: And, yes, Ullmark was absolutely a major factor in the game. He was sharp on the shots, blocking angles and snatching shots. Admittedly what the Senators failed to do was give up those breakaways, and, meanwhile, the Habs did not manage challenging deflections to beat Ullmark.

HW Habs Three Stars

First star: Kaiden Guhle (0g, 1a, 2 shots, -1, 21:25 TOI) played his first competitive game of the season and looked good doing so. He threw a solid hit in the first, assisted on Xhekaj’s goal, and did his best to make up for Adam Engstrom’s defensive shortcomings. It was as good a showing as one could hope for in his preseason debut (and finale).

Second star: Arber Xhekaj (1g, 0a, 3 shots, +1, 19:03 TOI) played the kind of game he should be playing: clean, strong, and staying out of the box, apart from the time that MacEwen jumped him. This is the kind of player we saw last season after he returned from Laval, and the kind of player that can have a long-term role on the Habs.

Third star: Brendan Gallagher (0g, 1a, 3 shots, +1, 16:55 TOI) looked much like his vintage self, even if this was only a preseason tussle. He skated hard and fought hard for the puck, and was rewarded with an assist for his efforts.