Habs Weekly: A Good Finish to February

After the long Olympic break, the Habs officially kicked off the stretch run with a pair of games to close out February.  While they left a point on the table, it was still a strong showing while they gained a bit of ground on those chasing them for a playoff spot.

The Week That Was

Feb. 26: Islanders 4, Canadiens 3 (OT) – This was a game that the Habs led for big portions.  However, some late-period struggles came back to bite them again.  They allowed a pair of goals to Matthew Schaefer late in the second (including one on a five-on-three), squandering a two-goal advantage.  Then, after Cole Caufield got them the lead back in the third, they couldn’t hold it, with Anders Lee tying it with less than two minutes to go.  Jean-Gabriel Pageau then potted the overtime winner on a breakaway, giving New York the win in a game that Montreal seemed in control of.

Feb. 28: Canadiens 6, Capitals 2 – Determined to rebound from losing that point, the Habs came out strong with Caufield scoring on the opening shift.  A rare strong second period extended their advantage to three goals, a lead that even they couldn’t squander.  Alex Ovechkin’s second of the night briefly made it interesting but Montreal potted a pair of empty-netters to put the game out of reach.

StatPack

Skaters:

#	Player	GP	G	A	+/-	PIMS	SOG	ATOI
8	Mike Matheson	2	1	0	+2	4	4	22:55
11	Brendan Gallagher	2	0	0	E	2	1	12:25
13	Cole Caufield	2	3	0	+4	0	9	18:44
14	Nick Suzuki	2	1	2	+3	0	8	21:31
15	Alex Newhook	2	0	2	+1	0	1	13:32
17	Josh Anderson	2	0	0	-1	0	0	13:48
20	Juraj Slafkovsky	2	0	1	-3	2	3	16:33
21	Kaiden Guhle	2	0	0	+1	0	3	23:13
24	Phillip Danault	2	0	0	E	0	0	15:31
45	Alexandre Carrier	2	0	0	E	2	2	16:45
47	Jayden Struble	1	0	1	+1	0	0	11:08
48	Lane Hutson	2	0	1	+1	0	2	22:07
53	Noah Dobson	2	2	0	-1	2	5	19:15
71	Jake Evans	2	1	0	+1	0	4	13:55
72	Arber Xhekaj	1	0	0	E	0	0	11:58
76	Zachary Bolduc	1	0	1	+1	0	1	12:24
77	Kirby Dach	2	1	0	+3	2	2	14:57
85	Alexandre Texier	1	0	1	E	0	1	13:01
91	Oliver Kapanen	2	0	0	-1	0	1	11:55
93	Ivan Demidov	2	0	0	-1	0	3	14:54

Goalies:

#	Player	Record	GAA	SV%	SO
35	Samuel Montembeault	0-0-1	3.92	.846	0
75	Jakub Dobes	1-0-0	2.00	.931	0

Team Leaders:

Goals: Cole Caufield (35)
Assists: Hutson/Suzuki (49)
Points: Nick Suzuki (68)
+/-: Nick Suzuki (+28)
PIMS: Arber Xhekaj (104)
Shots: Cole Caufield (180)

News And Notes

– Alex Newhook returned to the lineup after missing 40 games with an ankle injury.  While Patrik Laine continues to be hidden on IR despite practicing for several weeks now, the team is basically fully healthy at this point.

– Cole Caufield now has 21 go-ahead goals this season, breaking Guy Lafleur’s franchise record of 20 set back in the 1977-78 season. 

– With his two goals against the Islanders, Noah Dobson is now just one away from matching his career high of 13.  He’s done so without the benefit of prime power play time either as his 1:31 per game with the man advantage is the lowest of his full-season career (and about 50% below the last two seasons).

Last Game’s Lines:

Caufield – Suzuki – Dach
Slafkovsky – Kapanen – Demidov
Newhook – Evans – Bolduc
Anderson – Danault – Gallagher

Matheson – Guhle
Hutson – Dobson
Struble – Carrier

The Week Ahead

Tuesday at San Jose: The Sharks have hung around the playoff race for most of the season although a recent five-game losing streak has them on the outside looking in.  Macklin Celebrini has become one of the league’s top scorers while Will Smith, another of their core youngsters, is hovering near a point per game in his sophomore year.  They recently picked up Kiefer Sherwood from Vancouver but with no extension in place yet, he could be flipped by Friday’s trade deadline.  Depending on how things go on the trade front, it’s possible that San Jose holds out a veteran or two for precautionary reasons as is often the case at this time of year.

Friday at Anaheim: The addition of Joel Quenneville behind the bench has helped push their rebuild forward as he’s getting more out of several of their core youngsters.  Their top three scorers are all 22 or younger, the oldest being Cutter Gauthier who leads the team with 50 points.  Former Hab Ryan Poehling is having a nice season in their bottom six while Jackson LaCombe continues his emergence as a number one defenceman.  As a result of their improvement, they’re within striking distance of first place in the Pacific Division.

Saturday at Los Angeles: Offence has been an issue for the Kings this season, so much so that they just made a coaching change earlier on Sunday.  They added Artemi Panarin before the Olympics but have since lost Kevin Fiala and Andrei Kuzmenko to injuries, meaning that there’s an increasing need for more firepower if they want to stay in the playoff mix.  Former Hab Corey Perry just keeps on producing as he sits fifth in team scoring while Joel Armia has been his usual self in his first season since leaving Montreal, although he’s dealing with an upper-body injury and might not be available for this one.

Final Thought

The word balance is something you’re probably going to hear a lot of in the coming days.  Can the Habs add pieces to give further balance to their forward lines or a new third-pairing defenceman that they trust more than Arber Xhekaj and Jayden Struble that would allow them to play the third pairing a bit more and the top guys a little less?  Balance is boring, sure, but with the way the schedule shapes out, it’s also very practical.

For the rest of the season, Montreal is playing every other day on average.  That means practice time will be limited, more than it was through the first 59 games.  One way to counter that is to balance out the playing time.  You may have noticed in the stat table above that 12 of the 13 forwards that played logged at least 12 minutes a night of ice time.  The one who didn’t was Oliver Kapanen who missed the cutoff by all of five seconds per game.  That’s not by accident.  By rolling the bottom lines a bit more, the Habs are going to try to steal a big of in-game rest where they can for their top players.

It’s a nice luxury to have and it’s one that only works if the team has ample depth and few injuries.  There isn’t much they can do about the second part; injuries come when they come.  But while there is an understandable temptation to take a swing for another impact player, it wouldn’t be surprising if management looks to ensure they have the ability to run that balanced look as long as possible.  That would mean waiting until deadline day to do anything as that’s when the roster maximum rule goes away but this could be a deadline where prudence is prioritized over a big swing.