The Habs looked to end their five-game home stand on a high note as they hosted Pittsburgh on Thursday. However, a gruesome third period made a close game turn ugly as the Penguins picked up the 9-2 win.
Martin St. Louis intended to keep his lineup the same from Monday’s victory over Anaheim, meaning that Jayden Struble and Michael Pezzetta would be the healthy scratches while Cayden Primeau once again served as the backup. However, David Savard was a late scratch due to an upper-body injury (listed as day-to-day), meaning that Struble drew in; it’s the third time already this season that has happened to him. The team lined up as follows:
Caufield – Suzuki – Newhook
Slafkovsky – Dach – Laine
Anderson – Dvorak – Gallagher
Heineman – Evans – Armia
Hutson – Matheson
Xhekaj – Guhle
Struble – Barron
1) After a couple of days off, sometimes a team needs a bit of a spark. Montreal was able to get it early. Kris Letang sent a perfect cross-ice pass to Cole Caufield at the Canadiens blueline and he was off to the races. Rickard Rakell was chasing him down as was Letang. However, Letang opted to pressure the pass as Caufield got into the Pittsburgh end, allowing him to send a quick feed to Nick Suzuki who out-waited Tristan Jarry and opened up the scoring a little over two minutes in. This was Jarry’s 12th start of the season and the fifth time he allowed the first shot to get past him.
2) Unfortunately, the lead was short-lived. Patrik Laine was called for a hooking penalty less than a minute later in the defensive zone on a play that, well, wasn’t exactly penalty-worthy. After being a sore spot last year, the Penguins have been better with the man advantage this season and just over a minute into their power play, they made the most of it. Letang helped make up for his pass, threading a cross-ice feed to Rakell (left open by Kaiden Guhle who was hedging toward Michael Bunting behind him) and Rakell tapped it past Montembeault.
3) For a lot of the opening period, the Habs struggled to get the puck into Pittsburgh’s zone. They’d get to the blueline and instead of dumping it in and chasing, they’d try to make a quick play to the side and the Penguins were right there to pick it off or at least break it up. That’s a strong pre-scout from the Pens and frankly, it took too long for the Canadiens to adjust to it. They did toward the end of the period and started to be more impactful when they did, breaking up a long stretch where they didn’t get much of anything going.
4) Missed opportunities were the theme of the second period for Montreal. They couldn’t get anything going on a carryover power play. Christian Dvorak was then stopped on a breakaway. Then there was another power play that couldn’t even get set up in the attacking zone at times. Then there was a third advantage that they didn’t score on (although they moved the puck much better; it wasn’t a bad man advantage overall). But not capitalizing on that many chances that quickly typically comes back to bite you.
5) And that’s exactly what happened. Just past the midway mark, Bryan Rust went up the left wing, out-waited and got around Mike Matheson, and then drove the net stuffing it past an outstretched Montembeault. It wasn’t a pretty defensive effort from Matheson but full marks to Rust for an impressive individual effort.
6) Rust wasn’t done there. A little over three minutes later, Sidney Crosby set up Rakell with a good feed; Rakell then sent a pass to Rust on the right side. Montembeault bit a bit too hard on Rakell (in his defence, Rakell had the puck in the slot and passing from there generally isn’t the right call), freeing up enough room for Rust to sneak one through short-side on a play that Montembeault probably would want back.
7) Back to the missed chances for Montreal. Less than a minute after Rust’s second goal, Emil Heineman made a great feed from his knees to Joel Armia in the slot but Armia missed the mark. However, that line stayed out there for the next shift and they made up for it. Jake Evans got around Philip Tomasino in the neutral zone, setting up a three-on-two. He gained the zone and dropped a pass to Heineman who quickly went cross-ice to Armia and this time, he didn’t miss, one-timing it home. That was a big goal to get them out of what was another mid-period funk.
8) That was supposed to make the third period interesting. That didn’t happen. In a four-minute span, Rakell, Letang (a power play goal), and Anthony Beauvillier all scored to make it 6-2 and end Montembeault’s night. Things had gone off the rails, to put it lightly.
9) That put Primeau into the game and evidently, there were more rails for things to go off as he didn’t fare any better. He made a stop on Crosby and Kaiden Guhle gave the rebound to Rust who had an empty net to pick up his hat trick. Matt Nieto then scored on a rush play with the defence sagging back and not really covering anyone. It was his first goal in more than 13 months due to injuries. Pittsburgh wasn’t done there as Noel Acciari got around Struble (who simply fell on the play), got to the net untouched, and lifted one home. I liked the decision to get Primeau some game reps but yikes, he didn’t help his cause, nor did the defence.
10) Last season, the Habs were competitive losers most nights. When things got tough, they usually dug in and kept it close or at least played hard. This season, when things have gotten tough, the Canadiens have quit way too often, resulting in more blowout losses than expected. That’s a distinct lack of pride which is an indictment on the players and the coaching staff. They need to figure out how to get back to not quitting at the first sign of adversity soon.
1st Star: Nick Suzuki – He had the opening goal of the game on a nice deke following a strong feed from Caufield. The top line was the only one that didn’t get caved in which is a small positive, I suppose. Not a bad individual game from the captain that’s lost in how ugly this one got.
Stats: 1 goal, even rating, 2 shots, 2 blocks, 9/15 faceoffs, 20:24 TOI
2nd Star: Joel Armia – I could easily go with Caufield here but I’ll give Armia the nod since he had the other goal after missing on the great set up from Heineman the shift before. There weren’t many glaring individual errors although his line, usually a sound defensive one, had an off night.
Stats: 1 goal, -1 rating, 2 shots, 15:11 TOI
3rd Star: Michael Pezzetta and David Savard – They were among Montreal’s top performers in this one and they were sitting in the press box. That about says it all right there.
