10 Thoughts: Habs take apart the Sens with 4-1 home win

It’s a new season, but it’s only a week after the last of the bitterly-fought pre-season matches between the Canadiens and the Senators. After dropping the second game of the season-opening back-to-back to the hated Bruins, the Habs fans were looking for a better performance and a second win as the Sens arrived at the Bell Centre.

As it was, the fan favourites — Cole Caufield, Lane Hutson, and Samuel Montembeault — dismantled the Senators, withstood a second-period onslaught, and secured a second victory for the Habs in the season’s first three games. In addition to the two points, the defence looked better than in the first two games, and the second power play unit was playing at least as well as the first one. Yes, Ottawa has a weaker team than Toronto and Boston, but this was also the Canadiens’ best game of the young season.

Montreal’s Lines

Caufield – Suzuki – Slafkovsky
Newhook – Dach – Armia
Anderson – Evans – Gallagher
Heineman – Dvorak – Kapanen

Matheson – Guhle
Hutson – Savard
Xhekaj – Barron

Montembeault
Primeau

Ten Thoughts

#1: Arber Xhekaj rumbled in the opening minutes with Travis Hamonic, but the gloves didn’t come off, and neither player was sent off. Xhekaj was approaching the game right this time, playing hard but avoiding penalties. And, arguably, both of the first two Montreal power plays were the results of the Habs pushing the Senators just enough to get them to retaliate.

#2: Brady Tkachuk was getting in the face of Kirby Dach, and was called for elbowing. Two minutes on the power play, but it started with a shorthanded chance for Ottawa. Mike Matheson recovered and helped turn it into an odd-man break for the Habs, but the blanc bleu et rouge could not manage to get a shot off then, or for the rest of the penalty. As the penalty was about to expire, Emil Heineman, Christian Dvorak, and Josh Anderson jumped on the ice, and managed to gain possession in the Ottawa zone. Hutson — all 5’10 of him–won a puck battle in the corner, Christian Dvorak snapped the loose puck to the front of the net, and Emil Heineman made no mistake in putting the puck into the net behind Linus Ullmark.

#3: Twelve minutes into the game, there was a massive scramble in front of the Ottawa net, with Artem Zub lying prone in front of the net, trying to hide the puck. After five shot attempts, Anderson was knocked down, and then Zub cross-checked him for good measure while the Montreal forward was lying down on the ice. A stupid penalty if there is one. Alas, the power play could not take advantage of the penalty, but Cole Caufield deposited the puck in the net with his trademark wrist shot from the hash marks to double the Montreal lead soon after.

#4: Heineman and Tyler Kleven received matching cross-checking penalties 3:24 into the second period, giving us two minutes of four-on-four hockey. As much as the Bell Centre fans were looking forward to an exhibition by Hutson, the Canadiens barely had control during those two minutes and struggled to even get the puck out of their own zone. Maybe four-on-four is something that they have not started practising yet?

#5: After the strong defensive effort of the first period, the closing half of the second period looked far too much like the classic rope-a-dope technique. Outshot 12-3 by the Senators and out-chanced as well, it was only Montembeault’s steadiness that enabled them to hold on to the two-goal lead.

#6: While this writer is not part of the crowd that is clamouring to ship Matheson to Laval, the veteran defenceman clearly still needs to find his game this season. The third-period breakaway aside, he hasn’t been playing at the level he was last season so far.

#7: Tkachuk was sent to the box again early in the third, this time for slashing the speedy Alex Newhook. Seconds into the penalty, Matheson broke in alone, but was tripped by Jake Sanderson. Matheson was awarded a penalty shot but hit the post. After some decent power play pressure at the end of the penalty, Tkachuk, back from the sin bin, tried to clear the puck but was foiled by Armia. Seconds later, Hutson sent the puck across to Newhook, who skated in and snapped the puck past Ullmark to add to the Habs’ lead. The second power-play unit — with Hutson, Newhook, Gallagher, Armia, and Kapanen — was by far the stronger of the two throughout the game. Hutson surely deserves a significant portion of the credit for that, but the other players were contributing as well.

#8: Less than two minutes after that, Tim Stutzle broke into the Habs’ zone, and, curving in from the right of Montembeault, beat the Habs’ goaltender with a wrist shot on the far side. It was the first puck that got past the Canadiens’ starter in 67 shots, and it narrowed the home team’s edge to 3-1.

#9: That Stutzle goal clearly motivated the players, but it was the ones in the red sweaters. Slafkovsky sent Nick Suzuki onto a breakaway attack. Ullmark made the save, but Caufield was the next to arrive and tucked in the loose puck in a very Gallagher-esque goal to stretch the lead to three goals again. Four goals in three games–who says he cannot score fifty this year?

#10: Four minutes of six-on-five, three goals down? Surely the Senators did not realistically expect to tie the game up. But if the game is already lost, why not try to gain a psychological edge for the next one? Not that the finish was anything that the Sens’ players would like to remember.

HW Habs Three Stars

First star: Cole Caufield (2g, 0a, 3 shots, +2, 17:22 TOI) was in his element and looking dangerous time and time again, particularly at even strength. On the power play, the PP1 unit had movement and maybe even some unpredictability, but they were well to the outside, limiting realistic scoring opportunities.

Second star: Lane Hutson (0g, 1a, 1 shot, +2, 18:34 TOI) really deserved a second assist, on the Heineman goal, but even without that, he was highly impressive again. Not only was he generating offence, he was able to make defensive plays, with only the hooking minor on the negative side of his ledger. Will opponents learn how to play against him, or will he up his game quicker than they will? Time will tell, but there is no doubt that he is already a Bell Centre fan favourite.

Third star: Justin Barron (0g, 0a, 1 shot, +0, 16:55 TOI) was much maligned in the first two games of the season but he had a much stronger outing against Ottawa, securing the highest expected-goals percentage of the defensive corps in the process. He’s surely not a Guhle, but his strong performance on the night certainly deserves a third star.