10 Thoughts: Special teams cost dearly as Habs fall 4-1 to the Leafs

It seems to be such a long time ago, and in a galaxy far, far away, but the Canadiens did open this season with a hard-fought 1-0 victory over the Maple Leafs. Since then, the wheels seem to have come off the bus, with the Habs mired in a losing streak, and a visit to the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto did not seem likely to be the occasion for a turnaround in the young season.

And, indeed, it was another clear loss, this time by a 4-1 score, as the Leafs avenged their season-opener. It was not all bad, and there were indeed some highlights, but it was yet another loss, and it’s getting harder to look for the silver linings inside those dark clouds that envelop the Habs 2024-25 season at the moment.

Montreal’s Lines

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

Matheson – Guhle
Hutson – Savard
Xhekaj – Struble

Montembeault
Primeau

10 Thoughts

1) Whether it was a better effort by the bleu, blanc et rouge or the tired Maple Leafs team, the Canadiens looked very respectable early on,  applying pressure in the offensive zone and not panicking when the shoe was on the other foot. Samuel Montembeault had to make some early saves but none of those looked to be of a particularly difficult variety. Surely this was too good to last?

2) And, indeed, Toronto opened the scoring five minutes before the end of the first. As the home team was applying pressure in the Montreal end, Josh Anderson skated for Conor Timmins, at the boards just inside the blue line. So far so good, but Anderson decided to go for the puck, on the boards. Timmins, though, side-stepped that challenge and moved away from the boards. With Anderson lost on the boards, Timmins was able to move freely to the right faceoff dot and take a shot at goal from there. A fortuitous bounce off the bodies crowding the front of the net, and the puck spun in the air and eluded Montembeault.

3) The shot clock had a grim 7-2 reading–with the edge for the Maple Leafs–at the end of the first, but, as is so often the case, the shot count alone doesn’t tell the full story. The shot attempts were even at 16 each, but the Toronto defence corps’ seven blocked shots tipped the shot count. Scoring aside, the play in the opening period was far more balanced than indicated by that 7-2 shot count.

4) Kaiden Guhle and Pontus Holmberg collided on the boards five minutes into the middle frame, both falling down, but Guhle made the mistake of allowing his arm to come out and make contact. That arm cost him as he was called for holding, giving Toronto their first power play. It didn’t take long for the Habs to be punished for that infraction, as William Nylander skated end to end with the puck, first splitting Jake Evans and Jayden Struble at the top of the faceoff circle, and then skating past Lane Hutson to arrive in front of Montembeault all alone. Montembeault probably would like a do-over on this goal, too, but the reality was a two-goal Toronto lead.

5) The Habs got their first man advantage eight minutes into the second as Jake McCabe interfered with Cole Caufield in the Toronto zone. While the Montreal power play percentage is quite respectable so far this season, the first power play unit has been having struggles. They could not get a shot on net early and gave up a shorthanded rush to the Leafs. Kirby Dach won the faceoff–full credit for that–after the Montembeault save, though, and quickly moved the play back up into the offensive zone.

6) However, Dach lost his footing by the boards, and Mitch Marner turned it into another shorthanded rush. As he passed the puck to David Kampf, three Habs focused on Kampf, leaving Marner alone and free to tap in the return pass from Kampf. This was not the usual single-man breakaway shorthanded goal, this one had the whole crew there to witness the defensive breakdown. Do they need to practice this, too?

7) It was up to the PP2 unit to salvage something out of the power play, and they did not disappoint. Brendan Gallagher started the play from behind the net, with quick passing to Joel Armia, Lane Hutson, Emil Heineman and then back to Gallagher, now in front of the net. Gallagher did what he does best in front of the net, and finally got the Habs on the board.

8) Armia got called for holding on a mid-ice hit on Matthew Knies a few minutes after that. At this point, we already knew the script, and it only took 34 seconds for the Leafs to score as John Tavares took a couple of strides to grab his own rebound and lift it over Montembeault. Jake Evans was a few steps behind, but that’s too far to be able to reach for the opponent’s puck, or even get him off balance. Yes, Armia was in the box, but how did the early-season penalty kill get this inept?

9) Halfway through a rather whistle-free final period, Holmberg ran over Montembeault, with no whistle. Newhook took exception to the rough deal his goaltender got from Holmberg, but was rewarded with a roughing penalty, the only one of the period. Nothing to Holmberg, but with the Habs down by three goals with nine minutes left, I suppose it really didn’t matter all that much. And this time the Montreal penalty kill units did what they needed to do, conceding only three shots, all of which Montembeault was able to handle.

10) Another three-goal loss probably reflected Toronto’s special teams capability more than anything else, as they scored two on power plays and one shorthanded. At even strength, the Canadiens had the edge in shots, shot attempts and advanced stats (Corsi, Fenwick and xG). However, even there they could not score, as Timmins scored the only even-strength goal on the night. Someone needs to find the lost keys to the five-on-five success they had last season.

HW Habs Three Stars

First Star: Brendan Gallagher (1g, 0a, 2 shots, +0, 88% xGF) is playing at a level where no one should be complaining about his $6.5M contract: after scoring his seventh of the season, he is second in goals on the team and scoring at roughly a 0.5 goals/game pace. And he has the third-lowest AAV/goal on the team. This surely is not sustainable, but one can never fault Gallagher for the lack of effort, and he is showing the youth on the team how to turn that effort into goals.

Second Star: Lane Hutson (0g, 1a, 1 shot, +0, 20:30 TOI) still has defensive weaknesses, as was demonstrated by Nylander on the first Toronto power play goal, but not only is his playmaking impressive, he is learning quickly and showing that he listens to Martin St-Louis. How much will he be able to do next season or the one after? What is his real ceiling? The mind boggles trying to determine that.

Third star: Alex Newhook (0g, 0a, 1 shot, +0, 55% xGF) played his third consecutive strong game, and seems to be setting aside his early-season struggles.