Habs Weekly: Officially Clinched

The past week was a big one for the Habs as they wrapped up a long road trip with the hopes of locking down a playoff spot along the way.  While the week ended on a losing note, the rest of it was certainly successful as the Canadiens swept the road trip and secured a postseason berth.

The Week That Was

Mar. 31: Canadiens 4, Lightning 1 – This game basically boiled down to Montreal’s current approach toward winning games.  Get some timely goals – generally from the top line – and let the goaltending handle the rest.  Juraj Slafkovsky and Cole Caufield scored and Jakub Dobes was counted on for the rest, kicking aside 36 Tampa Bay shots.  Montreal added a pair of empty-netters to make the game look more lopsided than it really was.

Apr. 2: Canadiens 3, Rangers 2 – With New York thinking more about the reverse standings (for lottery seeding) than the actual standings, it didn’t come as much surprise that they didn’t put their best foot forth early on.  The Habs picked up a pair of quick goals and looked to be in the driver’s seat.  But it turns out that Montreal struggles holding down leads at MSG as the Rangers got those two back quickly in the third.  But less than a minute after the equalizer, Cole Caufield fired home his second of the night to give him 49 and the Canadiens a very important two points.

Apr. 4: Canadiens 4, Devils 3 (SO) – For the first half of the game, things were looking up for the Habs.  They had a three-goal lead by the midway mark of the second period, one that they should have been able to hold.  But they didn’t.  Some sloppy play allowed the Devils to cut the deficit to one heading into the third and from there, Timo Meier tied it up with the goalie pulled to send the game to overtime.  It was an eventful extra frame (to put it lightly) but ultimately went to the shootout where Oliver Kapanen scored the winner in the fifth round.

Apr. 5: Devils 3, Canadiens 0 – Six games in nine days is a lot for a team to deal with and while Montreal is hardly the only one going through it due to the compressed schedule, it provides some context for the lacklustre effort that they had in this one.  Yes, they woke up a bit in the third which is a promising sign but by then, they were down two thanks to a Cody Glass goal late in the second period that basically put the game out of reach.  But with Detroit losing earlier in the day, the Habs had already clinched a playoff spot.

StatPack

Skaters:

#	Player	GP	G	A	+/-	PIMS	SOG	ATOI
8	Mike Matheson	4	1	2	-1	0	4	22:57
11	Brendan Gallagher	4	0	0	-1	2	6	9:35
13	Cole Caufield	4	3	3	+3	0	19	19:09
14	Nick Suzuki	4	1	3	+3	2	8	21:50
15	Alex Newhook	4	1	0	-3	2	9	13:56
17	Josh Anderson	4	0	0	+1	13	6	13:45
20	Juraj Slafkovsky	4	1	2	+2	4	7	21:16
21	Kaiden Guhle	4	0	0	E	4	3	17:48
24	Phillip Danault	4	0	0	E	2	5	13:46
47	Jayden Struble	4	1	0	+2	4	4	14:54
48	Lane Hutson	4	1	0	+2	2	2	26:38
53	Noah Dobson	4	0	0	-6	2	2	22:34
71	Jake Evans	4	0	0	-2	2	1	15:39
72	Arber Xhekaj	4	0	1	+1	2	0	11:10
76	Zachary Bolduc	4	0	0	E	4	1	13:11
90	Joe Veleno	4	0	0	-2	2	3	11:36
91	Oliver Kapanen	4	0	0	-3	0	6	13:35
93	Ivan Demidov	4	1	2	-3	2	9	16:21

Goalies:

#	Player	Record	GAA	SV%	SO
32	Jacob Fowler	1-1-0	2.04	.907	0
75	Jakub Dobes	2-0-0	1.92	.947	0

Shootout – Skaters:

#	Player	G/ATT
13	Cole Caufield	1/1
14	Nick Suzuki	0/1
20	Juraj Slafkovsky	0/1
91	Oliver Kapanen	1/1
93	Ivan Demidov	1/1

Shootout – Goalies:

#	Player	SVS/SF
75	Jakub Dobes	3/5

Team Leaders:

Goals: Cole Caufield (49)
Assists: Nick Suzuki (68)
Points: Nick Suzuki (95)
+/-: Nick Suzuki (+35)
PIMS: Arber Xhekaj (110)
Shots: Cole Caufield (239)

News And Notes

– Defenceman Alexandre Carrier will miss two to four weeks with an upper-body injury.  The short end of that window is the end of the regular season while the long end would see him miss the first round of the playoffs.  Adam Engstrom was recalled from Laval to give the Rocket seven blueliners on the roster.

– Noah Dobson has been held without a point in seven straight games and has just one point (an assist) in his last 11 outings.

– Cole Caufield is the first Hab to score 25 road goals in a single season since Guy Lafleur did so back in 1979-80.

– Ivan Demidov’s goal against New Jersey on Saturday was his 60th point of the season.  That triggers another of his $250,000 ‘A’ bonuses.  It also makes the Canadiens the first team this season to have five players hit the 60-point mark.

Last Game’s Lines:

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

Matheson – Dobson
Struble – Hutson
Guhle – Xhekaj

The Week Ahead

Tuesday vs Florida – It has been a rough go for the Panthers lately.  They’ve lost five of their last seven games, giving up 29 goals in that stretch (including a nine-spot to Pittsburgh on Saturday).  On top of that, half of their 18 regular skaters are either on IR or out with injuries.  Included in that list is Aleksander Barkov, Brad Marchand, Sam Reinhart, and Anton Lundell among the forwards while Aaron Ekblad and Niko Mikkola are among the injured defencemen.  They do still have some firepower, however, with Matthew Tkachuk averaging more than a point per game with Sam Bennett and Carter Verhaeghe nearing the 60-point mark as well.  But this is certainly a winnable game for Montreal if they want to battle for home-ice advantage in the first round.

Thursday vs Tampa Bay – It could be a first-round playoff preview.  It could be a battle for seeding still.  It’s safe to say both sides are going to have something to play for.  Nikita Kucherov is working his way back from an illness with his minutes being managed a bit while at the moment, Brandon Hagel and Victor Hedman (personal) are out of the lineup.  Tampa Bay is a top-three team in the league in terms of goals scored and allowed (third-fewest) and they will likely be looking to send a message heading into this one.

Saturday vs Columbus – Montreal’s final home game of the regular season will see them host a Blue Jackets team that currently is on the outside looking in at a playoff spot but could legitimately still be in the mix by the time this game rolls around in spite of a six-game losing streak.  They recently lost a key defender with Damon Severson out for the season while two of their more physical wingers (Dmitri Voronkov and Mathieu Olivier) are sidelined as well.  Former Hab Sean Monahan has slumped under new head coach Rick Bowness; he hasn’t scored in his last 17 games.

Sunday at NY Islanders – For a big chunk of the second half of the season, New York has held a playoff spot.  Now they’re on the outside looking in and GM Mathieu Darche responded with a late-season coaching change with Peter DeBoer taking over for Patrick Roy.  It appears they’re leaning into the low-event, tight checking approach that has worked for them in the past which means this could be a low-scoring affair.  Ilya Sorokin has been among the NHL’s best goalies this season and will likely be playing both ends of the back-to-back with them taking on Ottawa in an afternoon game the day before.

Final Thought

Before this latest run of injuries up front, Joe Veleno had been a consistent healthy scratch while Brendan Gallagher, aside from missing one game, has been a fixture in the lineup all season.  With how things have gone lately, I can’t help but think the spot on the pecking order between the two has now been flipped.

Since Veleno returned to the lineup on March 19th, he has averaged 11:27 per game.  Gallagher, in that same span, is only at 11:37 on average.  But the distribution of minutes is more telling.  Veleno has logged more than 10 minutes of ice time in eight of nine games.  Gallagher – who has suited up 10 times since then – has been under that mark four times in the last seven outings. 

Offensively, neither player is doing much of anything to pull away from the other.  Veleno hasn’t recorded a point since returning; his last point came back in early January.  Gallagher, meanwhile, has one assist in that stretch but hasn’t scored a goal since early February.

Both players play on special teams – Gallagher the second power play unit and Veleno on the second penalty kill.  And that’s where Veleno may be starting to pull away.  Gallagher can easily be replaced on the power play once one of Kirby Dach or Alexandre Texier returns.  It’s not as if they’ll greatly be missing the one power play assist he has recorded since December.  But the penalty killing unit has been better as of late; they’ve actually worked their way into the top half of the league in that department.  Since Veleno started playing again, he’s logging 2:04 per game shorthanded, third-most behind Jake Evans and Phillip Danault.  That’s harder to find a replacement for compared to filling Gallagher’s spot on the second power play.

On top of that, Veleno brings more physicality to the table and is a left-shot centre option if moved into that role.  There’s no denying that Gallagher’s heart and hustle stands out but at this point of the season, does an intangible element like that trump a tangible element or two that Veleno is a better provider of?  I’m not sold on that being the case.

It could very well be a moot point as if both Texier and Dach return and Michael Hage winds up in the picture, both Gallagher and Veleno are likely in the press box come playoff time and those who could be rested have been.  But if there’s only one replacement incoming, I think Veleno has earned the right to keep that spot for now.  I wouldn’t have guessed that was going to be the case not that long ago.