10 Thoughts: Habs Squeak One Out in Ottawa

After dropping the first two games of their road trip, the Habs looked to salvage a victory as they took on Ottawa on Saturday.  They certainly didn’t play well for most of the game but did just enough to secure a 6-5 overtime win.

Martin St. Louis made a pair of lineup changes for this one.  First, Samuel Montembeault got the start in goal after Jacob Fowler was sent down to Laval.  (Fowler lost today in his first game back, 3-0.)  Meanwhile, Jake Evans was activated off LTIR and rejoined the lineup in a rejigged bottom six.  Samuel Blais was a healthy scratch as a result with the team lining up as follows:

Caufield – Suzuki – Texier
Slafkovsky – Kapanen – Demidov
Gallagher – Danault – Anderson
Veleno – Evans – Bolduc

Matheson – Dobson
Hutson – Carrier
Guhle – Xhekaj

10 Thoughts

1) Montreal’s power play has been hit or miss lately and they got an early opportunity when Drake Batherson tripped Mike Matheson 94 seconds into the game.  Early on, the Habs settled.  Cole Caufield got a down-low shot that had little chance of going in and then Nick Suzuki had an unscreened wrister.  Not good enough.  However, they kept working and finally, the quick passing opened up a lane to get a pass to Juraj Slafkovsky in the bumper position and he one-timed a feed from Caufield past Leevi Merilainen to open up the scoring.

2) A few minutes later, Evans made an early impact.  His forecheck on Tim Stutzle in Ottawa’s zone resulted in a turnover, right to Zach Bolduc who fired it home.  Unfortunately, Evans had made an impact just before that play as he put himself offside while waiting for a pass.  The Sens quickly challenged and the call was overturned.  It’s especially unfortunate for Bolduc whose grip on a lineup spot is starting to look shaky with a demotion to the fourth line and two players coming off IR shortly.  Bolduc needs something to go his way and that would have been it.

3) The Canadiens got another power play with 3:38 left when Arber Xhekaj drew a holding call on David Perron.  Again, the top unit didn’t start particularly well and then Suzuki turned the puck over in the offensive zone.  To his credit, he did a great job of hustling back to pin the puck carrier against the boards in Ottawa’s end.  Eventually, he won the battle, pushing the puck to Caufield for a quick two-on-one.  Caufield kept it and slid a shot five-hole on Merilainen, one that he had to stop.  The Habs were certainly glad that he didn’t and the lead was doubled.

4) The Habs then got into some penalty trouble of their own in the final minute.  Kaiden Guhle high-sticked Ridly Greig with 35 seconds left and then just before the buzzer, Josh Anderson tripped Dylan Cozens, giving Ottawa a long carryover two-man advantage into the second.  It’s especially unfortunate as otherwise, the Habs had done rather well defensively, not giving the Sens much to work with.

5) The second period was anything but good defensively for Montreal.  On the five-on-three, Jake Sanderson rushed the puck in and Montembeault made a good first stop.  But with a two-man advantage, there was lots of space for Ottawa and Claude Giroux sent a quick feed to Brady Tkachuk to make it 2-1.  Then, not long after the Anderson penalty expired, Tim Stutzle was given way too much space after spinning off Alexandre Carrier.  He drove the net from the goal line, went between his legs, and roofed a shot past Montembeault, who was caught trying to cheat across ever so slightly, opening just enough space for Stutzle to roof it.

6) Anderson was at least able to make up for his bad penalty.  Not even 90 seconds after Stutzle’s goal, he was able to send a seeing-eye wrister past a screened Merilainen and the Habs had the lead again.  And they took their foot off the gas from there.  They sleepwalked through a power play and then struggled on another one, leading to an Ivan Demidov penalty.  Once again, they paid for it.  Late in that man advantage, Stutzle was alone in the corner and sent a pass to the middle of the ice for Dylan Cozens.  He was open and quickly fired a wrister past Montembeault.  It got worse.  With two minutes left, Slafkovsky took a slash on a partial breakaway with no call.  The Senators came the other way and Artem Zub’s point shot squeaked through Montembeault.  David Perron was in behind him and directed the puck in to give Ottawa their first lead of the night.  It was arguably their second goal where there could have been a call (there was a potential blindside interference missed a little before the Stutzle goal) but full credit to the Sens for that period.  They came to play.  Montreal didn’t.  Simple as that.

7) When you’re facing a team with a weak goaltender, what’s the general mantra?  Get pucks on net, get some rebounds, and try to make life uncomfortable.  Through 40 minutes, the Habs opted for a different approach.  They tried the don’t shoot philosophy.  At the horn for the second intermission, they had all of 10 shots on goal and perhaps even more frustratingly, only 30 shot attempts.  It’s hard to take advantage of a young struggling netminder when the offensive strategy doesn’t involve actually trying to shoot the puck.  I get being selective but there are times that call for a more aggressive approach.  This game was one of them.

8) The Habs got a chance to tie it up around six minutes into the third when Thomas Chabot was sent for knocking Brendan Gallagher’s helmet off, the second roughing call for that in the game.  (How often do you see that?)  But once again, they couldn’t get anything going and then they turned the puck over several times with some sloppy play.  As the penalty was ending, the Sens got a two-on-one that became a four-on-two.  Greig dropped a pass to Sanderson who had plenty of time and space to fire one home to make it 5-3.  Montreal responded by not registering a shot for nearly eight minutes.

9) In a move to get something – anything – going, St. Louis pulled Montembeault with nearly five minutes left.  It worked.  Phillip Danault won an offensive zone draw back to Lane Hutson at the point and his weak shot was tipped home by Slafkovsky to make it 5-4.  Then, a minute later, with Montembeault back in the net, Demidov fed Alexandre Carrier at the point and he blasted a shot past Merilainen to tie the game.  In a game they had no business being in, they came back with two improbable goals.  Credit to them for not giving up but where was that sense of urgency for the last 30 minutes or so of game time?  Either way, they held on to get to overtime from there.

10) In the extra session, neither team was interested in playing keep away.  (That was a nice change of pace from the usual.)  Off the opening draw, Hutson was stopped on a two-on-one.  Ottawa went back the other way on a two-on-one but fanned on the shot.  That spurred another Montreal two-on-one and Caufield took a shot that somehow got through Merilainen to give the Habs the improbable victory.

HW Habs 3 Stars

1st Star: Cole Caufield – If I’m being honest, I thought Caufield had a pretty quiet game overall.  But he had a hand in both power play goals and scored the winner.  The Habs will take that kind of quiet if it means they’re winning at the buzzer.

Stats: 2 goals, 1 assist, +1 rating, 3 shots, 19:17 TOI

2nd Star: Josh Anderson – While his shorthanded penalty proved costly, he made up for it with the go-ahead goal soon after.  On a new-look veteran line, he played a responsible two-way game, something that stood out in what was a very immature effort from the Habs overall.

Stats: 1 goal, 1 assist, +1 rating, 2 PIMS, 2 shots, 2 hits, 12:53 TOI

3rd Star: Juraj Slafkovsky – At five-on-five, his line struggled.  However, he opened up the scoring with a good power play goal, then got a good tip to get them back within one.  That’s good enough to earn the third star in this game.

Stats: 2 goals, -1 rating, 2 shots, 4 hits, 20:00 TOI