10 Thoughts: Habs apply some lessons to beat Blues 5-2

The St. Louis Blues arrived in Montreal fresh off having beaten the Maple Leafs 5-1, while the Habs’ memories still stung from a 7-2 drubbing in the hands of the Rangers. The fans at the Bell Centre were hoping that the Blues would be overconfident and give the Habs a chance at victory after four consecutive losses.

As it was, it wasn’t so much overconfidence by St. Louis, but a much better-structured game by the bleu, blanc, et rouge, as the home team made fewer errors and managed the defensive zone significantly better than in the previous game. Far from perfect, but it was enough to secure a victory over the Blues, even if the Blues arguably played somewhat better for much of the game.

Starting Lines

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

Hutson – Savard
Matheson – Mailloux
Xhekaj – Struble

Montembeault
Primeau

Ten Thoughts

1) The Habs started the game with an early boarding penalty by Mike Pezzetta on a poorly judged hit on Alexey Tropchenko. No, playing hard doesn’t mean taking needless minor penalties or setting your team on a disadvantage for two minutes. Fortunately, the strong penalty-kill performance seen early this season continued. Mike Matheson carried the puck into the St Louis zone, killing time on the boards there. Even when the Blues gained offensive-zone possession, the penalty-killing team kept the attackers to the outside and ensured there were no high-danger scoring on the offer. As the team killed off two more penalties tonight, there is no doubt that this is at least one special team that has improved from last year.

2) Better yet, as that penalty expired, Jake Evans and Joel Armia, Montreal’s top penalty-killers, combined to open the scoring. Evans got things started by sending a loose puck along the boards and behind the net to David Savard. Armia then picked up a short pass from Savard and found Evans with a cross-ice one, sending the veteran centre on a two-on-one break with Pezzetta. Evans chose to shoot, and his wrister beat Jordan Binnington cleanly. 1-0 Montreal, then, on Evans’s first goal of the season.

3) Head coach Martin St-Louis likes his players to make good decisions and smart plays. Shortly after the halfway point of the period, Logan Mailloux made a good decision, moving into the St. Louis zone for a shooting opportunity. However, none of the forwards made what should have been an automatic play, to cover for Mailloux. The Blues were not able to score on the ensuing play, but surely activating the defence can’t start and end with just the defender.

4) Sustained early pressure in the second period paid off, giving the Habs a two-goal lead. A Matheson shot from near the blueline resulted in a big rebound, and Nick Suzuki swatted at it, only to be foiled by Binnington. The rebound from that save was in front of the open net to the left of Binnington, though, and both Kirby Dach and Mailloux dove for it, both appearing to hit it at nearly the same instant. Dach was credited with the goal, his first of a challenging season, but Mailloux would have likely been able to put the puck in the net as well. In either case, it was a 2-0 game.

5) Now, a 2-0 game is not a good reason to take your foot off the gas, is it? Because that’s what happened, and just seconds after the faceoff, the Blues were pressuring the home team. Four red sweaters coalesced in front of Samuel Montembeault, but none of them could cover Colton Parayko, who snapped in the loose puck from just outside the blue ice to cut the lead back to one. Twenty-one seconds it was …

6) Here is where the team should then show resilience and get back to its game, like it often did in the previous season. But, no, that didn’t happen, and the Blues continued to take the play to the Canadiens. Mailloux stopped a St. Louis clearing attempt at their blue line, but his shot back into the Blues’ zone was stopped by Ryan Suter. That would still have been OK, but on the ensuing attack, as the Montreal defenders collapsed in front of Montembeault, no one covered Jake Neighbours. In the end, he got the puck and was not prevented from tying up the game. Two mistakes, but the second was the more grave of the two.

7) The bleu, blanc, et rouge got their third power play opportunity late in the period after Scott Perunovich was called for high-sticking Dach. This time it didn’t take long as Nick Suzuki got the puck back to Matheson from the faceoff, Matheson sent it to Dach, who redirected it to the front of the net, where Alex Newhook was parked. With an open net facing him, Newhook made no mistake. Sometimes those faceoffs make all the difference. Suzuki was only two-for-nine in the faceoff circle tonight, but this faceoff win made all the difference.

8) Pezzetta took another unnecessary minor penalty in the third, this time for holding. The penalty discipline looks better for the Habs than in the first games of the season, and far better than the preseason. However, Pezzetta will not be improving his chances of being in the lineup by taking two penalties in a game.

9) Cole Caufield brought out the Bell Centre choir with five minutes remaining in the game. Lane Hutson broke up a St. Louis play just inside the Montreal blueline and passed the puck forward to Suzuki. The Habs’ captain saw Caufield streaking up through the neutral zone and passed the puck to the small-but-mighty winger. As the Blues defenders backed up toward Binnington, Caufield used them as a shield and snapped a shot to beat Binnington on the far side. 4-2 Montreal, then, on Caufield’s seventh goal of the season.

10) As the Blues pulled Binnington to try to look for a pair of goals, Joel Armia sent the puck the length of the ice from the Habs’ zone, but just missed the empty net, resulting in an icing call. After the ensuing faceoff, Christian Dvorak was able to make a controlled zone exit, though, and made a cross-ice pass to Armia. The big Finn’s way across the St. Louis blueline was blocked by Jordan Kyrou, but Armia made a nice spin-o-rama move and shot the puck into the middle of the empty net from just inside the St. Louis half of the ice to seal a 5-2 victory.

HW Habs Three Stars

First Star: Jake Evans (1g, 1a, 2 shots, +2, 16:40 TOI) and Joel Armia were once again superb on the penalty kill, keeping a clean sheet over three minor penalties. The quick break after the first penalty kill was the icing on the cake as Evans converted an Armia pass into his first goal of the season. Evans also recorded an assist on the Armia empty-netter and could have had another on a lovely pass he made to Dvorak in the third.

Second Star: Cole Caufield (1g, 0a, 1 shot, +1, 15:43 TOI) showed that he’s not a one-trick pony when it comes to scoring, using defenders as a screen to pot a critical goal on a rush. The Caufield-Suzuki-Dach line is not quite a finished product yet, but it’s not stopping Caufield.

Third Star: Samuel Montembeault (31 shots, 29 saves, 0.935 save%, 1.62 GSAx) wasn’t spectacular early, but he kept the Canadiens in the game when it mattered, late in the second period and then in the third.

Following the game, the Habs announced that they’ve recalled Lucas Condotta from Laval (who won 4-3 in Utica tonight).  Josh Anderson was injured in this game but is making the trip to Philadelphia; Condotta will be an insurance option if Anderson is unable to play.  Montreal will have to make a corresponding roster move to make room for Condotta on the 23-man roster but that can be done by retroactively placing Kaiden Guhle on IR.