Habs Weekly: A Good First Half of the Road Trip

Montreal’s annual holiday road trip didn’t start particularly well but after the break, they came back with two of their most complete games of the season, securing a rare two victories in Florida over the Panthers and Lightning.

The Week That Was

Dec. 23: Blue Jackets 5, Canadiens 4 – December 23rd has not been particularly kind to Montreal over the years and this was no exception.  They managed to overcome a two-goal deficit in the third with several of the supporting cast players contributing offensively and even had the lead briefly in the third.  However, the Blue Jackets tied it three minutes later and potted the winner with just over two minutes to go on a Kirill Marchenko shot that Samuel Montembeault would probably like another crack at it.

Dec. 28: Canadiens 4, Panthers 0 – This wasn’t a game many expected Montreal to win.  After all, Florida is one of the top teams in the league and with Jakub Dobes making his NHL debut, you never know what you’re going to get in that situation.  But to the Habs’ credit, they did pretty well limiting Florida’s chances to primarily the outside and got a pair of goals from Kirby Dach to help pace them offensively as the second line had some rare success at five-on-five.

Dec. 29: Canadiens 5, Lightning 2 – Jake Evans continued his hot streak, scoring in his fifth straight game with a goal that held up as the winner; the fourth line added a second goal as they keep producing much more than expected.  Meanwhile, Christian Dvorak had his first goal in more than six weeks while Montreal put up a season-best 36 shots.  That was more than enough support for Montembeault to allow the Habs to sweep the weekend.

StatPack

Skaters:

Goalies:

Team Leaders:

Goals: Cole Caufield (18)
Assists: Hutson/Suzuki (24)
Points: Nick Suzuki (35)
+/-: Jake Evans (+5)
PIMS: Arber Xhekaj (50)
Shots: Cole Caufield (100)

News And Notes

– Montreal had a balanced attack last week with Arber Xhekaj being the only skater without a point (and he nearly scored late against Tampa Bay).

– Jakub Dobes is the fifth Hab in franchise history to get a shutout in his first NHL start.  The other four were Wilf Cude (1933), Bob Perreault (1955), Wayne Thomas (1973), and Yann Danis (2005), the latter also being a rare goalie to wear #75..

– Dobes is only the second active NHL goaltender to have recorded a shutout in his NHL debut.  The other is Anaheim’s John Gibson who did that in 2014.

Last Game’s Lines

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

Hutson – Matheson
Guhle – Carrier
Xhekaj – Savard

The Week Ahead

Tuesday at Vegas – The road trip doesn’t get any easier as the Golden Knights are tied for first overall and are one of the top teams in both goals scored and allowed.  Jack Eichel is in the midst of a career year and is ninth in the league in scoring while Mark Stone has returned from an early-season injury that kept him out of the lineup in the first matchup between the two sides.  Brett Howden has become a key scorer for them; he’s tied for the team lead with 15 after having a career-best of nine heading into the season.

Friday at Chicago – An early-season coaching change hasn’t drastically improved their fortunes and they’ve allowed 21 goals in their last four games.  This will also be Chicago’s first game following the Winter Classic on Tuesday.  While the Blackhawks haven’t improved their record under Anders Sorensen, Connor Bedard has, however, as he has 13 points in 11 games after the change.  Frank Nazar, the player acquired with the first rounder that Montreal flipped for Kirby Dach, has struggled since being recalled and has just one assist in eight games.

Saturday at Colorado – The trip ends with another tough matchup.  Nathan MacKinnon is the NHL’s top scorer with 60 points already while Mikko Rantanen isn’t too far behind him.  Meanwhile, they’re hoping that they’ve shored up their biggest weakness as they’ve swapped out both of their goalies and recently gave Mackenzie Blackwood a five-year extension, cementing him as their goalie of the present and future.

Final Thought

While there were plenty of positives from Montreal’s last two games, the biggest takeaway for me is the potential this lineup has with a functional second line.  The Nick Suzuki line is pretty reliable all-around.  The Jake Evans line is scoring at a wholly unsustainable rate but they shouldn’t be counting on that trio for much scoring anyway.  Meanwhile, Christian Dvorak’s expensive third trio doesn’t score much but they don’t get scored on a ton either so they’re at least not losing their minutes.

But those three lines alone don’t provide enough scoring for the Habs to win most nights.  They need the trio of Alex Newhook, Kirby Dach, and Patrik Laine to give them that boost.  Laine can score on the power play but his five-on-five play has been pretty porous thus far which isn’t too shocking given the injury he’s coming back from.  Dach has been better as of late but his performance on the whole this season hasn’t been great and the same can be said for Laine.  Frankly, it’s an odd trio in terms of fit but perhaps they’re starting to figure it out now with three goals in the last two games.

The Habs have a lot invested in these three players – Newhook and Dach in terms of the price they paid to get them and Laine for being the most expensive skater on the books for the next two years.  Get this line going and Montreal has a shot at making it interesting over the second half of the season.  But if they go back to struggling, it’s hard to see how the Habs can try to move up in the standings.  There’s going to be some pressure on those three as a result.