10 Thoughts: Habs score five to sink the Senators again

After a two-week pause in regular-season activity for the Four Nations, it was a short trip up Autoroute 40 and the 417 on Saturday to get to the Canadian Tire Centre in Ottawa for the second game in the season series. With Emil Heineman having finally recovered from having been hit by a car in Utah, the only key player the Habs were missing was Kaiden Guhle. The Senators, on the other hand, were missing their two top scorers in Brady Tkachuk and Josh Norris, plus Shane Pinto, sixth on their goal-scoring list.

It may have been the two weeks of rest, or it could have been the newly-shaved Martin St-Louis behind the bench, but the Canadiens came out strongly, and this time did not fall asleep for a period or two. A few mistakes cost them the early lead, but they still recorded a convincing win, partly on the back of stronger goaltending than Ottawa had.

Starting Lines

Caufield – Suzuki – Slafkovsky
Newhook – Dach – Laine
Anderson – Dvorak – Gallagher
Heineman – Evans – Armia

Matheson – Carrier
Struble – Hutson
Xhekaj – Savard

Montembeault
Dobes

10 Thoughts

1) Josh Anderson set the tone for the game early, skating hard after the puck into the corner in the Ottawa zone with just more than two minutes in. He fell down on the play, but fortunately, Drake Batherson made a beautiful, if unintended, pass to Brendan Gallagher in front of the net, and the veteran winger made no mistake at all in getting the Canadiens on the board.

2) Another two minutes later, the bleu blanc et rouge were pressing in the Ottawa zone again. This time Juraj Slafkovsky won a board battle behind the net and sent the puck to David Savard near the blue line. From there, it was a pass to Arber Xhekaj and the big defenceman blasted a hard shot off the leg of Jake Sanderson. Cole Caufield was right there in front of the net, and Linus Ullmark had no chance to match the quickness of Caufield’s release. A 2-0 early lead and the visiting Habs fans wasted no time in getting the singing started. Alas, it turned out to be a bit early.

3) Anderson was sent off at 12:33, on what looked like a marginal tripping call, but Matthew Highmore made it look convincing enough to get the call. For the penalty kill, St-Louis sent out Nick Suzuki and Christian Dvorak rather than Jake Evans and Joel Armia, as the latter two had been on the ice more recently. Alas, the second unit could not gain possession or clear the puck, and before the penalty was halfway over, a Jake Sanderson shot had found its way through the net-front traffic and beat Sam Montembeault to bring the game within one.

4) It took another two and half minutes before the Senators had completely erased Montreal’s early lead. Mike Matheson misplayed the puck inside the Senators’ blue line, and Tim Stutzle flew away with it for a breakaway. Matheson is a fast skater, but he started a few strides behind Stutzle, and could not catch him. Montembeault blocked the scoring chance, but Stutzle spotted a gap between Montmbeault’s right pad and the post and tucked the puck in as he was skating past the net.

5) The Habs got their man advantage just 15 seconds later when Cole Reinhardt was penalized for holding Gallagher. And then, four seconds was enough: Suzuki won the faceoff and got the puck back to Lane Hutson. The rookie defender skated across, attracting the attention of the defenders expecting a shot, and then got the puck across to Patrik Laine’s office. The big Finn made it look easy with his tenth power play goal of the year, putting the Canadiens back ahead again.

6) After Laine’s goal ending his goalless drought, it was Anderson’s turn to snap his, almost as long as Laine’s. Gallagher and Anderson made a quick counterattack five minutes into the second period, with Gallagher making the shot. Ullmark blocked the shot but gave up a juicy rebound, and Anderson made no mistake snapping that through the five-hole and into the net to restore the two-goal edge.

7) The Canadiens sealed the final score just after the halfway point of the game, with a Jayden Struble pass from the defensive zone getting things started. Suzuki took the puck in along the left-side boards and held off a challenge from Sanderson. Then it was a pass to the front of the net, where Batherson couldn’t control the puck and missed the arrival of Slafkovsky. The big winger had open ice and made no mistake with a one-timer slapshot to beat Ullmark and send him to the dressing room.

8) Anton Forsberg stepped in for Ullmark and did a very credible job in not letting a bad situation get worse, making saves on all 10 shots. Overlooked for the Four Nations, he was clearly the best Swedish goaltender on the night.

9) We finally saw a fight early in the third period, but it surprisingly didn’t feature Arber Xhekaj at all. Xhekaj had done a bunch of pushing and shoving with Stutzle just moments earlier, but it was a Ridly Greig open-ice hit on Slafkovsky that triggered this one. Greig looked a bit outmatched in this one as the Habs’ winger weighs nearly 40 lbs more, but both benches applauded their own.

10) The Senators made a late effort to try to close the gap in the last ten minutes of the game, but to no avail, as Montembeault shut the door.

HW Habs Three Stars

First Star: Juraj Slafkovsky (1g, 0a, 5 shots, +1, 1 fight, 15:25 TOI) was a force to be reckoned with on the night, playing the way we saw him play late last season. A goal, the third-best xGF on the team, being hard to play against, and using his skills and size to his advantage. This is the Slafkovsky the Habs want and need, can we please keep this version for the rest of the season?

Second Star: Brendan Gallagher (1g, 1a, 3 shots, +2, 12:29 TOI) continues his resurgence, and his two points on the night now have him on track for a 36-point season. That would be his best since 2019-20 when he was still teamed up with Phillip Danault and Tomas Tatar.

Third star: Samuel Montembeault (27 shots, 25 saves, .926 save %, 0.82 GSAx) would surely like to try again on the Stutzle breakaway, but he played a strong game after his two-week rest, in particular barring the door in the third period when the Senators pressed the hardest.