Habs Weekly: A Slow Start out West
The Habs kept their hot streak going a little longer this past week but they weren’t able to keep it up, dropping the first two games of their Western road trip, pushing them a bit further back in the Wild Card chase.
The Week That Was
Mar. 3: Canadiens 4, Sabres 3 (OT) – Things couldn’t have gotten off to a better start for the Habs in this one as they were up 3-0 in the first period and it looked like they were well on their way to a rout. And then they forgot to keep the pedal down while Buffalo focused on trying to score more than hit, allowing them to take complete control of the game. And they worked their way right back into it with Rasmus Dahlin tying it up with a minute to go. However, Mike Matheson was able to bail Montreal out, scoring in overtime to give them the extra point.
Mar. 6: Oilers 3, Canadiens 2 (OT) – With Edmonton coming off a tough loss before this one, they were much more dialed in but to Montreal’s credit, they kept pace the whole night. They twice came back from one-goal deficits with tallies from Cole Caufield and Joel Armia and got it to overtime. The extra session almost went the distance, too, but Connor McDavid set up Evan Bouchard for the winner with seven seconds remaining.
Mar. 8: Flames 1, Canadiens 0 – It’s fair to say this one was a goalie duel between Dustin Wolf and Jakub Dobes in between what was often a very tight-checking affair. The Habs couldn’t get much going offensively in the first half of this one but found their footing and started to take control in the second half but just couldn’t bury one past Wolf. Joel Farabee had the only goal of the game coming back in the second period.
StatPack
Skaters:
| # | Player | GP | G | A | +/- | PIMS | SOG | ATOI |
| 8 | Mike Matheson | 3 | 1 | 1 | E | 0 | 6 | 28:23 |
| 11 | Brendan Gallagher | 3 | 0 | 0 | E | 2 | 1 | 14:48 |
| 13 | Cole Caufield | 3 | 2 | 0 | E | 0 | 14 | 20:15 |
| 14 | Nick Suzuki | 3 | 1 | 3 | E | 0 | 9 | 22:59 |
| 15 | Alex Newhook | 3 | 0 | 0 | -2 | 4 | 2 | 13:30 |
| 17 | Josh Anderson | 3 | 0 | 0 | E | 0 | 4 | 14:29 |
| 20 | Juraj Slafkovsky | 3 | 1 | 1 | E | 0 | 7 | 20:24 |
| 28 | Christian Dvorak | 3 | 0 | 0 | E | 2 | 5 | 15:38 |
| 40 | Joel Armia | 3 | 1 | 0 | -1 | 0 | 3 | 15:58 |
| 45 | Alexandre Carrier | 3 | 0 | 0 | -1 | 4 | 4 | 20:59 |
| 47 | Jayden Struble | 3 | 0 | 0 | -1 | 2 | 2 | 14:42 |
| 48 | Lane Hutson | 3 | 0 | 3 | -1 | 0 | 1 | 21:24 |
| 51 | Emil Heineman | 3 | 0 | 0 | -1 | 0 | 3 | 13:00 |
| 55 | Michael Pezzetta | 1 | 0 | 0 | E | 0 | 1 | 4:57 |
| 58 | David Savard | 3 | 0 | 0 | E | 0 | 2 | 16:57 |
| 62 | Owen Beck | 3 | 0 | 0 | -1 | 0 | 0 | 9:22 |
| 71 | Jake Evans | 3 | 0 | 1 | -1 | 0 | 0 | 15:24 |
| 72 | Arber Xhekaj | 3 | 0 | 0 | -1 | 2 | 4 | 14:48 |
| 92 | Patrik Laine | 2 | 0 | 0 | -1 | 0 | 5 | 11:41 |
Goalies:
| # | Player | Record | GAA | SV% | SO |
| 35 | Samuel Montembeault | 1-0-1 | 2.86 | .912 | 0 |
| 75 | Jakub Dobes | 0-1-0 | 1.05 | .958 | 0 |
Team Leaders:
Goals: Cole Caufield (31)
Assists: Nick Suzuki (46)
Points: Nick Suzuki (65)
+/-: Nick Suzuki (+7)
PIMS: Arber Xhekaj (91)
Shots: Cole Caufield (190)
News And Notes
– The Habs took their best trade chip off the market early, signing Jake Evans to a four-year, $11.4 million contract extension. The deal, which is slightly front-loaded, does not contain any form of trade protection.
– With that top chip gone, Montreal elected to stand pat on deadline day, marking the first time since 2015 that they didn’t make a move on the final day.
– Kaiden Guhle skated on his own for the first time as he works his way back from a lacerated quad muscle. Speaking at his post-deadline press conference, GM Kent Hughes indicated that there’s a possibility that Guhle could return this season but probably only if Montreal is still in the playoff mix late in the year.
Last Game’s Lines
Caufield – Suzuki – Slafkovsky
Heineman – Evans – Armia
Newhook – Beck – Pezzetta
Anderson – Dvorak – Gallagher
Matheson – Carrier
Struble – Hutson
Xhekaj – Savard
The Week Ahead
Tuesday at Vancouver – It has been a rocky year for the Canucks who have tried to reshape their roster and then somewhat surprisingly stood pat on deadline day. A year after winning the Pacific Division, they find themselves battling for a Wild Card spot. They’re currently without Quinn Hughes who is dealing with an undisclosed injury while Elias Pettersson’s offence has fallen off a cliff this season. Meanwhile, long-time starter Thatcher Demko has barely played due to continuing knee issues. This is a winnable game but it’s two teams in very similar situations in terms of their playoff push.
Wednesday at Seattle – The same thing can’t be said for the Kraken, another team that has underachieved this year but they’re nowhere close to the playoffs. Like Montreal, they’re more of a score-by-committee type of team and actually don’t have a 20-goal scorer on their roster. Seattle sold at the deadline, dealing away Oliver Bjorkstrand, Yanni Gourde, and Brandon Tanev as they look to give some younger players some more chances. Speaking of which, Shane Wright actually has two more points than Juraj Slafkovsky does this season in two fewer games (and a lot less ice time).
Saturday vs Florida – The Panthers swung big on the trade front, bringing in Seth Jones to shore up the defence and Brad Marchand to deepen their forward group although he won’t be available for this game, nor will Matthew Tkachuk whose regular season is over, helping to create the cap space used to bring in those two. They’ve had one of the top offences and defences all season long so this won’t be an easy first game back after the road trip.
Final Thought
This was initially planned as something about the trade deadline but that’s too long of a thought for this column. Watch for something separate on that later this week. So instead, let’s go over the 3 Stars fan vote results for February with some quick commentary.
1st Star: Nick Suzuki – His play heading into the break left something to be desired but the rest did him plenty of good as he was one of the league’s top scorers for the rest of the month. That made him a pretty easy choice here.
Stats: 8 GP, 3-6-9, +1 rating, 0 PIMS, 16 shots, 51.2% faceoffs, 19:10 ATOI
2nd Star: Alex Newhook – He showed some signs of life last month with his trio actually having a bit of success offensively at five-on-five. It’s telling that even now, they aren’t trying him at centre so for those thinking he could be an option there next season, that doesn’t appear very likely.
Stats: 8 GP, 2-5-7, -1 rating, 2 PIMS, 8 shots, 40.3% faceoffs, 14:57 ATOI
3rd Star: Cole Caufield – Would it be fair to characterize his February performance as same old, same old? It feels that way. He had a pretty steady month punctuated by a highlight-reel overtime winner in the final game to give Montreal a key point in the standings.
Stats: 8 GP, 3-3-6, even rating, 0 PIMS, 18 shots, 18:05 ATOI
Honourable Mention: Josh Anderson – From a performance standpoint, he doesn’t really belong on this list. But plenty of voters threw some support his way for very clearly playing through some injuries and while he wasn’t particularly productive, he was still pretty effective overall.
Stats: 8 GP, 1-0-1, +1 rating, 4 PIMS, 17 shots, 15 hits, 14:09 ATOI