10 Thoughts: Dobes helps Habs secure 2-1 win in Nashville

With six games remaining in the season, the Canadiens were in the driver’s seat in their drive for the first playoff spot since 2021, but the Nashville Predators were certainly not going to just roll over and play dead for the Habs, even if their own playoff dreams had evaporated a long time ago.

The bleu blanc et rouge were outplayed and outhustled for much of Sunday’s game, but they combined five minutes of high-skill offence with 55 minutes of desperate defence and sprawling goaltending to eke out a 2-1 victory, strengthening their claim on that final playoff position. They now have just one night off before hosting the Red Wings at home in the Bell Centre.

Starting Lines

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

Guhle – Hutson
Matheson – Carrier
Struble – Xhekaj

Dobes
Montembeault

Ten Thoughts

1) Josh Anderson was given a day off yesterday for the birth of his first child, missing the game against but he followed the team to Nashville today and was back in the lineup for the opening faceoff. However, both David Savard and Emil Heineman were noted as day-to-day, with Arber Xhekaj taking Savard’s spot on the defence corps. The Predators didn’t have much sympathy for that, though, given that they were playing without two of their stars, Roman Josi and Jonathan Marchessault–and with only 11 forwards dressed for the game.

2) The Habs were on the second half of a back-to-back pair of games, having taken a hard-fought victory from the Flyers in Montreal, and followed that up with a late-night flight to Nashville. The lack of energy showed early, as the visitors seemed to be unable skate with the same pace as the Predators, giving Nashville the early scoring chances.

3) No, the lethargic effort did not cost them in the first few minutes–but it didn’t even take five. Just before the clock reached 4:30, Mike Matheson skated out from behind the Montreal net and decided to split the Nashville forecheckers. He avoided Steven Stamkos, but Filip Forsberg got his stick on the puck and stripped it from Matheson. A quick pass, and Stamkos had the puck all alone in front of Jakub Dobes. A quick tap sent the puck through Dobes’s five-hole before the young Czech was able to get into the butterfly position.

4) Things were getting worse in the second half of the period, and around 12:30, things got really ugly. Cole Smith took a shot for the bottom of the circle, which Dobes blocked, but then Nick Blankenburg ran into Dobes, kicking his pad out of the way. At that point, Michael McCarron–yes, that Michael McCarron, the Habs’ first-round pick from 12 years ago–arrived and tapped the puck into the net. To a casual observer, it sure looked like goaltender interference, but Martin St-Louis waited for a while before making this call. Fortunately for the Canadiens, the referees agreed, and the score remained 1-0.

5) The Habs clearly looked like they had benefited from a pep talk during the first intermission, whether that message was delivered by St-Louis or Nick Suzuki, skating harder and beating the Predators to the puck. It paid off quickly, as at 1:40, Cole Caufield, Nick Suzuki, and Juraj Slafkovsky broke into the Nashville zone. With Slafkovsky as a decoy on the opposite side, the Nashville defenders weren’t able to commit to Caufield, allowing the Montreal sniper to release a wrister into the top corner of the net to tie up the game. And just 18 seconds later, Oliver Kapanen rang a wrist shot off the goal post, nearly recording his first NHL marker in his second game back in the league.

6) I said five minutes of high-skill attack, and it was 4:17 after Caufield’s goal that the Habs broke through again on another rush. Newhook made the pass to Lane Hutson to get things started, but the play was all about Hutson’s spectacular cross-ice pass from the right side to the left, beating the three Predators looking to block the pass. That was immediately followed by Patrik Laine’s laser from the top of the left circle, beating Juuse Saros just inside the right post. 64 points for Hutson, matching Chris Chelios’s rookie season, and 20 goals for Laine.

7) After the shock of the two Montreal goals, it seemed that the turning point was the Nashville power play from 8:07 of the second, after Kaiden Guhle was given an (arguably undeserved) unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for a hard check he delivered on Luke Evangelista behind the Montreal net. The penalty killing units minimized the chances and Dobes did his part to keep the puck out, but the Predators seemed to build energy from this effort. By the end of the period–when Guhle got sent to the box again, this time for a holding penalty–the Habs were hanging in for dear life. A period that had started well ended up with a 15-8 shot advantage for Nashville.

8) In the second intermission, if the Canadiens tried to dig deeper again, it appears that they came up empty, as there was little attack that they could put together, while the Predators were able to create multiple scoring chances on Dobes.

9) Michael Pezzetta was called for holding midway through the final frame on a sequence that had little resemblance to holding. Jake Evans and Joel Armia were able to kill off the first 45 seconds, largely in the Nashville end, but for the balance of the penalty, there was no question about who was in charge, as the Nashville power play rotated the puck around the Montreal zone.

10) So we got to three minutes before the end of the third, and Nashville’s Todd Richards (replacing Andrew Brunette who was away from the team for family reasons) beckoned Saros to the bench. It has been interesting to watch the six-on-five play recently, as we have gotten used to seeing the Habs be the team that pulls the goalie. Some successful clears, some good forechecking, and some sprawling desperation saves by Dobes got the team through those three minutes, though, giving them the win they so badly needed to come closer to securing their playoff hopes.

HW Habs Three Stars

First Star: Jakub Dobes (37 shots, 36 saves, .973 save percentage, +2.98 GSAx) had a bit of a shaky start, allowing the Stamkos goal early on and then giving up the rebound that led to the Nashville goal that was called back. Credit to his mental fortitude that he gathered his wits and focused on the game. His saves were often sprawling, at best Hasek-like, but he kept the puck out and secured the win for the team, which is what matters the most.

Second Star: Lane Hutson (0g, 1a, 0 shots, +1, 21:33 TOI) tied the Chris Chelios franchise mark for the most points by a rookie defenceman, set way back in 1985. Another incredible pass, the only question at this point is whether he has already passed Macklin Celebrini in the Calder Trophy race.

Third Star: Patrik Laine (1g, 0a, 1 shot, +1, 11:28 TOI) keeps improving his 5-on-5 play and scoring on even strength, even from a rush–something that most defenders do not expect, given his reputation for one-timers from the faceoff circle.