10 Thoughts: Habs fall just short in 2-1 shootout loss to Stars

The Dallas Stars were in town for their one and only visit to the Bell Centre on Saturday, riding a six-game winning streak and a 7-2-1 record in their last ten games. The Canadiens, so recently still known as a bottom-dwelling sad-sack team, had won nine of their last 11 games to move into playoff contention. And, after a four-game absence for each, both Patrik Laine and David Savard returned to bolster the Montreal lineup.

They say you can’t win them all, and this turned out to be the end of the Habs’ third three-game winning streak, as the Stars claimed the victory thanks to a 1-0 edge in shootout goals. A very credible effort by the bleu blanc et rouge, but on this night it was not quite enough to beat the Stars.

Starting Lines

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

Hutson – Matheson
Guhle – Carrier
Xhekaj – Savard

Montembeault
Dobes

Ten Thoughts

1) The Habs, playing on a second consecutive night, came out flying for the first period, not betraying any signs of fatigue. They controlled play and repeatedly hemmed the Stars into their zone. Kirby Dach and Joel Armia had decent scoring chances but Jake Oettinger handled the shots with ease at this point.

2) Josh Anderson played hard and played the body tonight, but that play triggered an odd penalty call seven minutes into the first period. After Anderson raced Matt Dumba for a loose puck at the Dallas end, there was some shoving between the two, and then Anderson was piled on by five (!) Stars players. Somehow, Anderson got a double minor for this incident and Dumba was the only one penalized for Dallas, and only for a single. The Stars managed but a single shot on the power play, though, as the Montreal penalty killing units did what they do best, keeping the shots to the outside and blocking many of those shots.

3) While they didn’t get scored on after the Anderson penalties, things were far more challenging for the Habs after the first five minutes. The Stars pressed hard, rushed hard, and took 16 shots on Sam Montembeault in the period, while the bleu blanc et rouge went for long stretches without a single shot on goal. The first period is rarely the right time for a rope-a-dope approach, but that’s what the team play looked like for most of the period.

4) After regrouping in the dressing room between the periods, the Canadiens came out flying for the second period, turning the tide from the struggles of the first. As the clock ticked toward the midway point, the shots were 8-2 in the first ten minutes or so, and the hits reached a 22-2 edge as Montreal continued to throw their bodies at the green intruders. Still, those efforts weren’t resulting in a goal, either.

5) The Canadiens finally gained a power play at 14:26 into the second period, after Dumba cross-checked Gallagher on the left-side boards. Better yet, 33 seconds later, as the Habs were attempting a power play zone entry, Colin Blackwell stuck his puck into Cole Caufield’s feet, earning him, too, a trip to the penalty box. Suzuki immediately fed the puck to a Dallas player to maximize the length of the two-man advantage, yet another example of the captain’s quick thinking.

6) Just 14 seconds later, we could confirm that Patrik Laine is back at work and in his office, as the big sniper one-timed a Suzuki pass past Jake Oettinger to give the Habs the lead. That’s nine power-play goals in just 14 games, a higher rate by far than anyone else in the league. Alas, the remaining five-on-four was at best forgettable, as the Habs struggled to enter the offensive zone, and the Stars threatened with short-handed attacks.

7) Alas, that lead did not last long. About two minutes later, with the play in the Dallas zone, Alexandre Carrier pinched in on the left-hand boards to capture a loose puck. However, he mishandled the puck and fell down, allowing Mavrik Bourque to snatch the puck and pass it ahead to Jamie Benn. Benn and Bourque gained a two-on-one rush with only Kaiden Guhle defending, and Alex Newhook trying to catch Bourque. Montembeault played cautiously, worried about a pass across to Bourque, and thus left some empty net for Benn to snap the puck behind him and tie the game at 1-1.

8) Five minutes into the final frame, Armia drew a slashing call for Bourque. However, the ensuing power play was as inept as the five-on-four segment after the Laine goal in the second period. The Stars’ penalty killers challenged the Montreal attackers in the neutral zone, and then aggressively pursued the puck once in the zone, and neither of the Habs’ power play units had any answers tonight to solve that puzzle.

9) As the clock advanced past the midway point of the final frame, Montreal piled on the pressure, but between an effective Dallas defence and Oettinger’s strong play, they had little net to shoot at. And with the Habs’ aggressive attacks, Dallas had plenty of counterattacks of their own, and Montembeault had to come up with multiple big saves.

10) We then witnessed an entertaining but scoreless three-on-three overtime session, where both goaltenders came up big to keep the score at one apiece, Montembeault particularly turning away scoring chances by Matt Duchene, Jason Robertson and Logan Stankoven in the final minutes of overtime. As for the shootout, none of the Habs–Laine, Caufield and Suzuki–were able to beat Oettinger, so Robertson’s goal on Montembeault stood as the shootout winner.

HW Habs Three Stars

First Star: Patrik Laine (1g, 0a, 1 shot, +0, 17:00 TOI) not only scored the Habs’ singular goal on his return from the IR, but he also used his big body to throw some punishing checks. Not known for his physicality, Laine has been using his body more and also has been improving his backchecking as he continues to adapt to the Habs’ system.

Second Star: Samuel Montembeault (35 shots, 34 saves, .971 save %, +3.09 GSAx) lost the shootout duel to Oettinger, but a single goal against from the Dallas barrage tonight kept the Habs in the game until the very end. Yes, maybe playing that goal differently would have been better, but it would have been better yet not to give Benn and Bourque a two-on-one break in the first place.

Third Star: Juraj Slafkovsky (0g, 0a, 1 shot, +0, 16:00 TOI) may not have put any points on the board, but he played hard and there was little doubting his effort as he recorded seven hits and five blocked shots–more than any of the defencemen!