After an extended break, the Habs were back in action on Saturday as they hosted Vegas. The Golden Knights took command of the game with a five-goal second period and never looked back as they picked up the 6-2 win.
Unsurprisingly, Martin St. Louis elected not to change up his lineup from the group that shut out Edmonton back on Monday, meaning that Justin Barron and Michael Pezzetta were once again healthy scratches. The rest of the team lined up as follows:
Slafkovsky – Suzuki – Dach
Caufield – Evans – Newhook
Anderson – Dvorak – Gallagher
Heineman – Condotta – Armia
Guhle – Matheson
Hutson – Savard
Xhekaj – Struble
1) You could tell early on that the Habs were rusty. They took a too many men call just two minutes into the game, before everyone had even touched the ice yet. The first set of line changes is about the easiest of the game when coaches just want to get everyone out there early so botching that wasn’t something the coaches will be pleased about. Fortunately for Montreal, their penalty kill wasn’t quite so rusty as they were able to kill it off without a lot of fanfare beyond an odd-man rush for Vegas after the Canadiens failed to capitalize on one of their own.
2) For the next several minutes, the Habs were well-structured. It didn’t result in particularly thrilling action at either end of the ice but the awareness and positioning were leaps and bounds better than what we saw even a couple of weeks ago. Of course, maintaining that for 60 minutes is still going to be a challenge and as the period progressed, the Golden Knights started to poke open some cracks in that structure but Samuel Montembeault was sharp to keep them off the board.
3) The Habs got their first power play late in the first and, you guessed it, they looked quite rusty again. Neither unit could get much of anything going in the Vegas end; the highlight was an open-ice hit by Lane Hutson on Cole Schwindt in the defensive zone to break up a possible scoring chance. With all due respect to Hutson, I don’t want a hit from him to be the highlight of a man advantage again anytime soon.
4) Unfortunately for the Habs, things went entirely off the rails in the second (and that’s putting it lightly). First, Brendan Gallagher and David Savard overcommitted on a fake shot, putting the defence in scramble mode. Hutson fell seconds later. The end result was Christian Dvorak getting caught in no-man’s land in coverage on Tomas Hertl and Brayden McNabb threaded a pass across that was fired in the net before Montembeault could even react to the pass.
5) Then it was Kirby Dach’s turn to make a mistake. More than one, in fact. First, he turned it over to Jack Eichel in the defensive zone. Then, he half-heartedly chased him into the corner, taking himself out of position. When Eichel sent it to the front of the net, Dach once again went at half speed. Callahan Burke took the feed and fired it past Montembeault for his first NHL goal. Burke wasn’t Dach’s player so this wasn’t all on him but that was a brutal giveaway and an unacceptable lack of effort after that.
6) A minute later, Juraj Slafkovsky turned it over in the offensive end and Vegas was off to the races. Ivan Barbashev played give-and-go with Eichel with Barbashev banking a sharp-angle pass off Montembeault’s skate and in. Hard to blame the goalie on this one too. Then, following another giveaway in the attacking end, Noah Hanifin skated around the defence and found Tanner Pearson who made it 4-0. Remember a few points ago about maintaining defensive structure for 60 minutes being an issue? They didn’t have it for 60 seconds in the second period up to this point.
7) Montembeault then showed some cracks himself with three minutes to go. He flubbed an easily controllable rebound off a Zach Whitecloud shot, then looked in the wrong direction for the rebound as Keegan Kolesar slid it past him to make it five-zip. Montreal was booed off the ice and rightfully so.
8) After Montembeault was mercifully pulled for Cayden Primeau to start the third, the Habs got off to a good start with Emil Heineman one-timing home a Joel Armia feed for an early power play goal. However, any possible momentum from that was thwarted by a needless Arber Xhekaj roughing penalty soon after. He has done better at avoiding those this year but that was one he didn’t need to take. Armia had the best chance on the sequence but he fired wide on a breakaway.
9) Jayden Struble was able to get his first of the season late as a flubbed pass from Gallagher worked perfectly, going cross-crease where the blueliner buried it past Adin Hill. He has done well to largely avoid the rotation this season, that won’t hurt his cause if nothing else. However, the Golden Knights ended any fleeting hope of a comeback when Hutson turned it over in the offensive end with a little less than two minutes left, leading to a two-on-one where Barbashev set up Eichel who beat Primeau on a shot he had no chance on. Three offensive-zone giveaways that led to goals in this one for the Habs; it’s safe to say that’ll be on the video for the next practice.
10) Rafael Harvey-Pinard is due to be added back to Montreal’s roster following tonight’s Laval victory in Belleville as that’s the end of his three-game LTI conditioning stint. At this point, it’s hard to see him getting back into the lineup. The Habs can appeal to add two more games to that loan and right now, it feels like that would be the best option as it’s better to have him playing for the Rocket for a few more days than landing alongside Pezzetta as a regular in the press box.
1st Star: Brendan Gallagher – He had a hand in both of Montreal’s goals and was one of the few forwards who was noticeable in all three periods. In a game like this, that’s enough for the first star.
Stats: 2 assists, even rating, 3 shots, 2 hits, 14:53 TOI
2nd Star: Kaiden Guhle – This is admittedly an eye test selection but I thought Guhle made some plays early on that should have led to shots, if not scoring chances but the play never materialized. Defensively, he didn’t have as many lapses as some of the other blueliners. Overall, I felt he was better than the numbers might suggest.
Stats: 0 points, -1 rating, 1 shot, 2 hits, 21:06 TOI
3rd Star: Emil Heineman – I didn’t think much of his first two periods though, to be fair, he hardly played. He wound up getting more run in the third after scoring the power play marker and was more noticeable in the final frame. I’ll be curious to see if he stays in that elevated role for Tuesday’s game against Utah.
Stats: 1 goal, -1 rating, 1 shot, 4 hits, 10:59 TOI
