10 Thoughts: Habs Stay Hot in Win Over East Leading Capitals

The Habs finally returned to action after a quiet week started with their overtime victory over the Vancouver Canucks on Monday. If they barely escaped against a team in turmoil in Vancouver, they were going to need a much more complete effort against a team that is anything but in turmoil in Washington, the second-best team in the NHL and the best team in the East.

This was always going to be a huge challenge since the Capitals are an excellent offensive team and we are all aware that the main challenge for the Canadiens is often in their defensive coverages. The Capitals are also better ranked than the Habs in both special team metrics. To make matters worse, Montreal continued to soldier on without the services of David Savard and Patrik Laine. On this night, none of this mattered because the Habs continued to ride an incredible streak both for themselves and rookie netminder Jakub Dobes on their way to a 3-2 overtime victory. 

Habs Lineup

Cole Caufield — Nick Suzuki — Juraj Slafkovsky
Michael Pezzetta – Kirby Dach — Alex Newhook
Brendan Gallagher – Christian Dvorak– Josh Anderson
Emil Heineman – Jake Evans — Joel Armia

Lane Hutson – Mike Matheson
Kaiden Guhle — Alexandre Carrier
Jayden Struble – Arber Xhekaj 

Jakub Dobes 

10 Thoughts

1) The opening ten minutes of play belonged to Washington despite only holding a 4-3 shot advantage at the end of it. Montreal helped the big and physical Capitals as the two replacement players in Pezzetta and Struble took penalties early. The Habs killed the second penalty thanks to Dobes robbing Tom Wilson at the goalmouth. The Canadiens even got the best scoring chance as Armia was sent in on a breakaway without scoring. 

2) The Capitals did score on the first power play of the game though when an Evans clear was sent directly onto Jakob Chychrun’s stick in the centre of the ice. Chychrun took the gift, skated down the middle of the zone, and wired one by Dobes to open the scoring 2:56 into the game. 

3) The Habs got back to good habits in the second half of the period, but the play became low-event as both teams clogged up the middle of the ice. Montreal got their chance on the power play when Pierre-Luc Dubois committed a hooking infraction on Matheson with one minute to play. The advantage for some zone time before Charlie Lindgren made an incredible save on Hutson and Dach was robbed by a defender in the final seconds of the period that ended with a 7-7 shot clock. 

4) The Canadiens started the second period on the man advantage and continued with momentum afterward, outshooting the Caps 6-0 in the first half of the period. Suzuki was pushed into Charline Lindgren on the play who stayed down and was eventually removed from the game and did not return. The Habs got two more power plays right after their goal on an offensive zone interference on Newhook and then a delay of game penalty. They looked good on both advantages but couldn’t score. 

5) Juraj Slafkovsky had himself a second period. He made an excellent deke on the man advantage to start the period. At the five-minute mark, he won two puck battles and made two excellent passes to set up his linemates, the second of which was a cross-zone pass that found Caufield all alone beside the net that Caufield quickly put home to tie the game. 

6) Dach was called for tripping on Wilson with eight minutes to play. On the penalty kill, Carrier blocked a shot that resulted in his skate blade going flying. He was lucky though because on the Matheson clear, John Carlson inexplicably hit the puck with a high stick that allowed Carrier to change. On the next shift, Anderson blocked a shot and then skated on a breakaway where he completed a nifty backhand move to give the Habs the lead. 

7) On the shift that followed the Anderson goal, Struble was guilty of his second penalty in the game as he tripped Alex Ovechkin as the Dach penalty expired. It appeared to this writer that this penalty was a stretch and Struble was simply unlucky. However, he was lucky that for the second time in this game, his teammates stepped up and killed the penalty as the Habs skated away from the second period with a 2-1 lead and a 20-10 shot lead. Meanwhile, after his post-penalty shift ended, Struble didn’t play the rest of the night.

8) In the opening minutes of the third period, Pezzetta attempted a cute drop pass in the offensive zone that resulted in the Habs coughing up the puck in a danger zone. Ethen Frank, the AHL speedster, beat Xhekaj to an icing. Pezzetta then overskated his backcheck as Frank located Lars Eller coming in who beat Dobes to even the score. 

9) Throughout the third period, the two teams exchanged good scoring chances but Logan Thompson and Dobes made some strong saves to keep their respective teams even and fighting. The momentum of play appeared to be swinging in the direction of the Capitals who spent increasing amounts of time in the Habs zone, but the Canadiens were defending themselves well and not giving Washington much in terms of significant scoring chances. They defended well enough to get the game to overtime. 

10) The overtime saw both teams attack once with the opposition in good posture to defend. Then, the Caps caught Montreal in an awkward transition and appeared poised to attack Dobes two-on-one. Hutson made a bit of a desperation leg drag and it worked. He blocked the pass, and it was the Habs that ended up two-on-one. It was a sloppy one due to Caufield and Suzuki being on the ice for over a minute. Suzuki’s pass did not get through, but it luckily came back to Suzuki who chipped it over Thompson and the Habs walked away with another impressive win. 

HabsWorld Habs 3 Stars

1st Star – Juraj Slafkovsky 

When Slafkovsky moves his feet, wins his puck battles, and plays with confidence with the puck, he is an absolute treat to watch as his physique makes him a beast which helps him create so much space for himself and Suzuki. On this night, his play was less physical, but he was winning races and being patient with the puck which was equally impressive as he collected strong plays, most notably in the second period. 

Stats: 1 assist, +1, 1 shot, 19:05 T.O.I. 

2nd Star – Kaiden Guhle 

It was another impressive defensive outing for the budding blueliner who is lining up impressive efforts against the top of the league while piling up big hits, blocked shots, and simply shutting down the best in the league. 

Stats: 1 assist, +1, 1 shot, 4 hits, 23:18 T.O.I. 

3rd Star – Jakub Dobes 

Dobes remains undefeated as his career starts 3-0 after this win. In this game, it wasn’t always pretty for Dobes, but his rebound control remained a strength which oftentimes makes up for his aggressiveness in the crease. He also made key saves in moments where the game could have shifted, or quite frankly simply gotten away from the Habs. Stylistically speaking, I believe he remains a work in progress, but he’s got character as evidenced by his big save in the first after allowing a goal he’d likely prefer to have back as his lateral movement was too strong and took him out of position slightly. 

Stats: 15 saves, 17 shots, 1.96 G.A.A, .882 save %, 61:15 T.O.I.