10 Thoughts: Habs Lose to Penguins in Uneven Effort

The third straight back-to-back weekend for the Habs saw them complete a home-and-away with the Pittsburgh Penguins. While one might expect fatigue to play a factor, the truth is that the Penguins’ schedule hasn’t been much easier. Perhaps the Habs thought they were going in for an easy win after having dominated the first two encounters of the season. What happened instead was that the Penguins were energized by a milestone moment for their captain and the Canadiens simply didn’t have their A game, as coach St. Louis likes to say.

Jakub Dobes made some key stops at times but was also guilty of swimming and creating said chances quite often. The pace of the game was dictated by Pittsburgh all night. The Canadiens showed great resilience and they were opportunistic in pouncing on the chances given to them by the uneven Penguins squad. Overall, Montreal was lucky to get the game to overtime, the Penguins were lucky to survive the Habs-dominated overtime period, and the visitors skated away with a point they likely didn’t deserve in a 4-3 shootout loss. One more game against the Bruins before the Christmas break. 

Habs Lineup

Zack Bolduc — Nick Suzuki — Cole Caufield
Juraj Slafkovsky – Oliver Kapanen — Ivan Demidov
Alexandre Texier – Joe Veleno – Josh Anderson
Sammy Blais — Owen Beck — Brendan Gallagher 

Mike Matheson – Noah Dobson
Lane Hutson — Alexandre Carrier
Arber Xhekaj – Adam Engstrom 

Jakub Dobes 

10 Thoughts

1) The start of the game saw both teams taking risks to try to create offensively. With both teams in consecutive weeks of four games in six nights, one could suppose that both teams wanted a lead to force the other tired team into a negative game script. The Penguins did this by playing a very north-south style with plenty of traffic in front of Dobes. The Habs activated their defence early although they weren’t sharp with their passes.

2) The first period wasn’t all negative for the Habs as they got on the board first. Following a successful initial penalty kill after Dobson cleared a defensive puck directly into the crowd, the Habs were first to get on the board as Demidov and Slafkovsky completed a pretty tic-tac-toe for Kapanen to bury the game’s opening goal. A rare Xhekaj rush then forced the Pens into their first penalty. The Canadiens were dangerous but ultimately couldn’t score on the occasion. During the Engstrom penalty, Anderson was sent in for a breakaway, but Arturs Silovs made the save. 

3) There were also plenty of negatives in the period for Montreal. 40 seconds after the opening goal, the Pens completely hemmed the Canadiens into their own zone as the visitors got lost in defensive zone coverage. This allowed Sidney Crosby to tip home a Kris Letang point shot after failed coverage down low by Caufield. It was a terrible shift by Texier and Veleno that led to the Engstrom penalty, and the Engstrom penalty ultimately led to Rickard Rakell scoring on a juicy Crosby rebound. Pittsburgh outshot the Habs 15-8 in the period. 

4) A quick moment to highlight a rather impressive feat as Crosby’s two points were historically important as he tied and passed Mario Lemieux as the Penguins all-time franchise leading scorer. Lemieux had a taped message for Crosby to commemorate the moment that was played during the following TV timeout. 

5) After a horrendous opening four minutes to start the second, the Habs woke up and completely dominated the next six minutes. This was started on a shift where Slafkovsky completely took over a shift. On his third excellent play of the shift, he went cross-ice to Demidov who completed a one-timer to beat Silovs and tie the game at two. Immediately after this, a strong shift by the Beck line concluded with a strong save by Silovs on Blais. 

6) The rest of the period was a disaster for Montreal as the Penguins completely dominated the second half, ending the sequence with a 28-16 shot advantage. This all started on a poor read by Suzuki in the neutral zone. Granted, it was a rather excellent pass by Letang that found Noel Acciari on a football-like route. Acciari buried a shot that Dobes likely would like to see again. This goal seemed to create a complete breakdown by the Habs, who left Dobes out to dry. Dobes was often his own saviour as the rebound control left much to be desired, as is often the case with the young netminder. However, Dobes did make a few incredible saves on pileups in his crease to keep the Canadiens within striking distance. 

7) Five minutes into the third period, Beck and Gallagher crashed the net hard and Dobson was the one rewarded. Parker Wotherspoon led Beck into Silovs, but where the Habs got lucky was that it was Wotherspoon falling into Silovs that really hampered the netminder. While this was going on, Dobson cut across the zone and buried the equalizer. 

8) A rather soft play by Beck a few minutes later fooled the official into a call against Thomas Novak as the Habs got their second power play on the night. Montreal didn’t generate much, but the two chances they created resulted in broken sticks for Habs players instead of good scoring chances. 

9) With eight minutes to play, a strong board play by Justin Brazeau forced Beck to take a tripping penalty. The Habs were able to survive the sequence before both teams started playing a rather safe brand of hockey,  getting the game to overtime. The Penguins did win the shot battle with a 30-22 count. 

10) Hutson, Caufield, and Suzuki put on a show to start the overtime before Matheson hit a post on another dominant shift, this time with Slafkovsky and Kapanen. The Habs were robbed again as Slafkovsky and Caufield both hit a post in the final minute of play. In the shootout, Kevin Hayes scored as Texier was stopped. Crosby was stopped before Caufield would tie it up five-hole. Rickard Rakell then showed great patience to get around Dobes before Suzuki’s shootout struggles continued as the Pens skated away with a second point. 

HabsWorld Habs 3 Stars

1st Star – Juraj Slafkovsky 

Slafkovsky continued his recent surge of being the best Habs forward on most nights over the last month. The two passes served on Montreal’s first two goals of the night were masterful, the second likely being the most impressive as it came on an absolutely dominant shift. That he’s being trusted in more and more important missions both offensively and defensively also demonstrates that the coaching staff is noticing the recent excellent play of the young first overall selection. 

Stats: 2 assists, +2, 1 shot, 1 hit, 21:13 T.O.I. 

2nd Star – Ivan Demidov 

The presence of Slafkovsky on his line has apparently allowed Demidov to find a better balance between the pass and the shot. The rewards have been immediate as Demidov finds himself with four points over his last five games, an even two goals and two assists. 

Stats: 1 goal, 1 assist, +2, 2 shots, 1 hit, 15:56 T.O.I. 

3rd Star – Lane Hutson 

Hutson was not able to get his name on the scoresheet in this game, but his presence was felt for a whopping 29 minutes, none more impactful than the overtime wizardry that the Habs simply weren’t able to finish on.  

Stats: even, 2 shots, 3 blocks, 28:58 T.O.I.