10 Thoughts: Suzuki’s Pair Leads Habs to Victory Over Florida

The Habs looked to sweep both ends of the home-and-home with Florida as they hosted the Panthers on Tuesday.  The captain came up clutch with Nick Suzuki scoring in the dying seconds to tie it and added the winner in overtime in a 3-2 victory.

Unsurprisingly, Martin St. Louis opted to keep his lineup unchanged from Sunday afternoon’s victory.  That meant that Joshua Roy and Arber Xhekaj were the healthy scratches while Samuel Montembeault got the start in goal.  The team lined up as follows:

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

Guhle – Hutson
Matheson – Carrier
Struble – Savard

10 Thoughts

1) At this time of year, teams on the bubble are often relying on their veterans to help lead the way.  The Habs have been no exception with Christian Dvorak’s line making more and more of an impact lately.  That continued early in this one as their first shift yielded plenty of pressure and offensive zone time and a few minutes later, they hit the scoresheet with Josh Anderson tipping home a Kaiden Guhle point shot.  While we think of Patrik Laine’s line as the one that needs to contribute some secondary scoring, this trio picking it up offensively would go a long way as well.

2) Montreal did a lot better after the goal in terms of not giving up a bunch of scoring chances and allowing a quick one to tie it up within a couple of minutes.  It took six minutes this time.  Off a won faceoff, Niko Mikkola (already drawing the ire of the fans for how Sunday’s game ended) took a harmless shot from the sideboards.  Jake Evans wound up with the perfect redirection, changing the puck’s trajectory just enough to sneak it short-side past Montembeault.  That was one of those ‘bad luck’ goals, there isn’t much to nitpick about this one.  Those just happen from time to time.

3) It nearly happened again, too, before the end of the period.  A few minutes later, a shot bounced toward the crease and A.J. Greer was right there to kick it in.  Unfortunately for him, the term kick is literal as after a quick review, the goal was taken off the board.  It was an eventful period for the fourth liner as early in the first, he took out teammate Nico Sturm with a blindside hit, ending his night early.

4) The second period was a rough one for Juraj Slafkovsky.  Early on, he had a brutal giveaway in the defensive zone, giving the Panthers’ top line a wide-open look in the slot but it stayed out.  Then, on Montreal’s first power play, he panicked a bit under pressure with the puck on his stick, leading to a clear and ending their best push with that advantage.  And for good measure, he took a penalty in the final minute of the frame.  Not a great showing on his bobblehead night.

5) After a solid first period defensively, the Canadiens started to slip in the second, eventually allowing the Panthers to slowly take over.  Frankly, with Florida looking for some revenge after Sunday’s game and being a top team in the East, that was to be expected at some point.

6) Eventually, the visitors were rewarded for their efforts.  Emil Heineman was called for tripping Evan Rodrigues with just under two minutes in the period and on the ensuing man advantage, Mackie Samoskevich’s shot went off Guhle’s stick and in.  At this point, Florida had yet to take a shot that beat Montembeault clean but had the lead heading into the third.

7) Montreal got a power play chance in the third after a four-on-four ended but proceeded to give the puck to Florida multiple times and then got fooled in defensive coverage, resulting in Laine having to take a penalty to break up an Aleksander Barkov breakaway.  Full credit to the penalty kill for killing it off, at least.

8) This is a learning opportunity for the Habs and one thing they saw last week against Carolina was how they struggle against stifling defensive pressure.  With Florida playing the same way with the lead, the Canadiens continued those struggles.  And when they had chances to shoot, they were way too pass-happy.  That’s something they’re really going to have to get better at.

9) Things weren’t looking good for Montreal in the final minute.  Mike Matheson passed the puck to no one in the offensive zone, resulting in Laine going back for the puck and promptly missing badly on the pass ahead, resulting in an icing.  Eventually, the Canadiens got the puck into Florida’s end.  Hutson was stopped so he just sent a soft wrister toward the net, hoping for the best.  After the Panthers got some favourable bounces, it was Montreal’s turn as the puck hit Sam Reinhart and bounced sideways right to Nick Suzuki who had a wide-open tap-in with less than nine seconds left.  They could run that play 100 times and not have that bounce happen exactly the way it did.  It was fluky but it didn’t matter and off to overtime they went.

10) There was no favourable bounce needed in the extra session.  On the opening shift, the Habs got control off the draw and set up in Florida’s end.  The puck eventually went to Suzuki who wrapped it around, beating Vitek Vanecek to the post to stuff it home for the improbable victory.  I think the appropriate word here is ‘wow.’  That’s quite the comeback for a huge two points.

HW Habs 3 Stars

1st Star: Nick Suzuki – Let’s not overthink this too much.  He had the tying goal and the winning goal.  (He also made a really nifty play late to set up a two-on-one that they overpassed on.)  That’s the definition of coming up huge when his team needed him.  A fitting end to the night for the Molson Cup recipient for March.

Stats: 2 goals, +2 rating, 2 shots, 13/21 faceoffs, 23:30 TOI

2nd Star: Lane Hutson – I don’t typically like to keep giving the same player a star each time I write these as it becomes redundant after a while.  But it’s just too hard not to give him one here.  Hutson had an assist on all three goals (passing Chris Chelios for the franchise record in rookie assists) along with some strong defensive plays.  Yet another strong game for Hutson.

Stats: 3 assists, +3 rating, 3 shots, 2 takeaways, 26:12 TOI

3rd Star: Samuel Montembeault – There was only one Florida shot that beat him and Alexandre Carrier swept that off the goal line in the third.  He didn’t have much of a chance on the redirects that did go in and in between those, he made some key stops.  That was one of Montembeault’s better games in a while and a very timely one at that.

Stats: 25 saves on 27 shots, 2.02 GAA, .926 SV%