10 Thoughts: Habs fall apart in 7-3 loss to the Maple Leafs

Arriving in Montreal, the Maple Leafs were–and still are–the top team in the Atlantic and tied for third in the league. And yet, the upstart Canadiens, still working on their rebuild, have been the hottest team in the NHL since mid-December, and the swagger in the dressing room is palpable as they have shown they are capable of beating just about anyone in the league.

Indeed, the Habs looked great in the first period, largely dominating it, and building a quick 3-0 lead. However, it was not to be as the visitors scored two in the second period and then five more, all unanswered, in the third to make it a 7-3 final score. Joseph Woll was acrobatic in the Maple Leafs net, but tonight, Samuel Montembeault could not counter with a similar performance.

Starting Lines

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

Hutson – Matheson
Guhle – Carrier
Xhekaj – Savard

Montembeault
Dobes

Ten Thoughts

1) The Habs got on the board early, with an extended advantage on a delayed penalty call. This time it was not Patrik Laine, power play shooter extraordinaire, but Kirby Dach, who continued his recent strong play. A pass from Laine to Kaiden Guhle was quickly sent to Dach, who one-timed it past a sliding Joseph Woll to give the home team an early 1-0 lead.

2) Fifteen minutes in, Auston Matthews drew a double minor for high-sticking Nick Suzuki. The Habs’ captain was not injured, incensing Craig Berube on the Toronto bench, but this is one case where the rules are crystal clear. So four minutes with the man advantage beckoned, but it looked nothing like the six-on-five we had just seen. Through three and a half minutes. all they had to show for it was a single shot by Alex Newhook. But the Laine Lightning struck again at 18:21 as the big sniper took a pass from Lane Hutson and lodged it into the net behind Woll.

3) And then the Leafs were caught napping on the ensuing faceoff. Jake Evans won the faceoff from former teammate Max Domi and Alexandre Carrier picked it up and forwarded it to Joel Armia. Armia out-battled Morgan Rielly on the right-side boards and beat him out, tossing the puck to Josh Anderson, who skated around a stumbling Domi to break in alone on Woll. A backhand flip beat Woll on the stick side and gave the Habs a 3-0 lead.

4) At the midway point of the second, Hutson and Brendan Gallagher broke into the Toronto zone on a two-on-one, with Christian Dvorak following. Rielly blocked Hutson’s shot, and while Dvorak got the rebound, he hit the goalpost on his shot. And then Bobby McMann stole the puck and turned the tables, attacking with William Nylander. With David Savard sliding to block the pass, McMann lifted the puck over Montembeault’s right shoulder to get the Maple Leafs on the board.

5) With Hutson sitting in the sin bin for holding Pontus Holmberg, the Leafs got within striking distance. With the clock running out on the Toronto man advantage, Oliver Ekman-Larsson sent a fast pass to Nicholas Robertson, who tipped it past a sliding Montembeault. The Habs were slipping a bit on that penalty kill coverage, and no one was covering Robertson.

6) The third line applied pressure in the Toronto end from the time the puck dropped for the final period, but McMann intercepted an Armia pass and sent William Nylander on a breakaway. With the referee’s hand up indicating a delayed Montreal penalty, Nylander out-skated Hutson and then beat Montembeault on a backhand from just outside the blue ice to tie up the game.

7) And then, with Christian Dvorak off for holding Nylander, Ekman-Larsson sent a waist-high shot through heavy traffic, and then it was Toronto in the lead for the first time. Not very likely that Montembeault could actually see the shot, but that wouldn’t have made anyone any happier about a fourth unanswered Toronto goal.

8) As if things couldn’t get any worse, barely a minute after the Toronto go-ahead goal, David Savard was called for holding Ryan Reaves’ stick. Fortunately, the penalty kill started with Armia and Evans on the ice: Armia won a crushing battle behind the net to free the puck and sent Jake Evans on a shorthanded breakaway. With no Leafs defenders in sight, Matthew Knies resorted to hauling down Evans and neutralized the power play.

9) Playing four on four, Caufield nearly scored but Woll somehow stretched his pad out to block the shot. And then it all fell apart, with Matthews and Marner breaking in–and that was with Savard back on the ice. Matthews one-timed a Marner pass, just squeaking it through between Montembeault’s blocker and right pad to make it 5-3.

10) Steven Lorentz scored one more yet, and then a David Kampf empty-netter to seal the final score at 7-3, an awful total of seven unanswered Toronto goals after the Canadiens had gained that 3-0 advantage. And yet, 7-3 surely didn’t reflect the play. Depending on whose stats you believe, the Canadiens either tied the Leafs in expected goals or out-chanced them. However, Woll made some superb (or at least unlikely) saves, while Montembeault did not have a particularly strong game. This might not result in a bag skate for the team, but it might give rookie goaltender Jakub Dobes some additional starts, as long as he keeps up his strong play.

HW Habs Three Stars

First Star: Kaiden Guhle (0g, 1a, 4 shots, +0, 19:29 TOI) was superb, along with defensive pair Alexandre Carrier, keeping away scoring chances and enabling offence. With a 1.56-0.31 edge in five-on-five expected goals, the advanced statistics back up the eye test of how well Guhle and Carrier played.

Second Star: Patrik Laine (1g, 1a, 2 shots, -2, 15:35 TOI) did more than was expected, adding an assist to his usual power play marker, and being a key cog in building up the first-period lead.

Third Star: Kirby Dach (1g, 0a, 4 shots, -2, 17:42 TOI) has clearly regained his confidence in his game and scoring the opening goal will have further cemented that. However, he did have the Matthews shorthanded goal on the minus side of his ledger.