10 Thoughts – A Boston Tea Party

Montreal and Boston clashed in the final game of the year before the Christmas roster freeze on Tuesday, and Phillip Danault’s debut game with Montreal since being re-acquired last week. Jacob Fowler made his first start in Boston where he went to school at Boston College and helped the Eagles to the Frozen Four. In their first trip to TD Garden for the season, Montreal played a tight, defensive system until they had a chance to break it open in the third.

Once more, Montreal forwards characterized themselves by supporting the defensemen and getting back into the zone. Rebounds, when they happened at all, were swallowed up by returning forwards who were able to curl back up the ice and move the play away from Fowler. Lane Hutson dazzled the Boston crowd, and Jeremy Swayman was given some nightmarish goals to think about over the Christmas Break. Montreal erupted for four goals in the third period and head home with a 6-2 victory in Massachusetts.

Habs Lineup

Zack Bolduc — Nick Suzuki — Cole Caufield
Juraj Slafkovsky – Oliver Kapanen — Ivan Demidov
Alexandre Texier – Phillip Danault – Josh Anderson
Sammy Blais — Joe Veleno — Brendan Gallagher 

Mike Matheson – Noah Dobson
Lane Hutson — Alexandre Carrier
Arber Xhekaj – Jayden Struble

Jacob Fowler (Starting) – Jakub Dobes (Backup)

10 Thoughts

1) Josh Anderson and Tanner Jeannot dropped the gloves off the opening faceoff. The two bruising forwards went at each other for around 45 seconds, the tilt ending when Anderson lost his footing to the pleasure of the New England faithful. 26 seconds into the first period, and another stoppage happened. Hampus Lindholm was called on a holding behind Jeremy Swayman against Alexandre Texier. Montreal dumped the puck into the zone and attempted to carry it from behind the net when the infraction occurred. The Bruins played an effective and highly aggressive penalty killing scheme, keeping the Habs’ top unit to the outside perimeter of the top of the zone. Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield double-shifted on the power play again, and the Habs were unable to convert early with the man advantage.

2) At 12:55, Lane Hutson coughed up the puck in the offensive zone while trying to fake out his defender. Danault had won the faceoff to the left of Swayman back to Hutson, who danced the blue line and cut into the open middle ice. Instead of unloading the puck on net, Hutson attempted to send a blind pass across the slot to his partner.  However, Pastrnak was in the lane and picked him off for a rare mistake from the sophomore blueliner. Arber Xhekaj and Nikita Zadorov engaged in an organized fight following another faceoff in the Bruins zone at 11:31. Slafkovsky called for interference off the same faceoff, blocking his man from moving to the point. The seventh-ranked power play went to work at home but had a very difficult time organizing themselves into a zone entry and were beaten out to loose pucks by the visiting defenders. Mike Matheson and Noah Dobson both played very well during the kill, holding the blue line and closing off gaps.

3) Immediately following the successful kill, Sammy Blais was rewarded for his crash-and-bang play with a goal from below the goal line. As Hutson sent a shot in from the point, the puck ricocheted off the Bruins defender in front of the net. Blais had been rotating behind the net and Swayman when the puck popped right out onto his stick inside the goal line. Seeing that the Bruins’ netminder was off his post and leaning forward, a perfect half-foot opening emerged above Swayman’s right shoulder. Blais didn’t miss and opened up the scoring.  Montreal was not able to maintain its momentum following the goal and was soon hemmed into its zone. Trying to relieve the pressure, Matheson retrieved the puck below the circle and sent it out to the point on his backhand. Unfortunately for Fowler, the pass went directly to a cutting-in Alex Steeves. Steeves sent the puck at Fowler, who stopped in, but couldn’t control the rebound enough to prevent the puck from getting back to Mason Lohrei. The Habs were now strung out in their zone, and Marat Khusnutdinov snuck to the soft side of coverage and hammered the pass from Lohrei into the open net behind Fowler.

4) The physical play continued into the late stages of the first with another hard hit and penalty in the Canadiens’ end. Brendan Gallagher was called for slashing Vladislav Kolyachonok during a scrum in front of Fowler as the Canadiens tried to fight off a sprinting Boston. This power play was far more comprehensive from the Bruins, and they tossed the puck around the zone and defenders looked for an opening behind Fowler. Pavel Zacha and Morgan Geekie both labelled iron, but Montreal was able to catch a break when Viktor Arvidsson slashed the stick out of Matheson’s hands and broke it just as the penalty expired. Montreal was able to successfully pull apart the defenders and get passes into the slot but did not unleash any one-timers when they had looked the defenders off, and as such, Boston blocked numerous shots. Just as the penalty expired for Boston, Ivan Demidov’s pass to Oliver Kapanen hit his shin pad and fell at Zadorov’s feet. As Zadorov pivoted to shoot the puck up the ice, Demidov got his stick into his hands (loosely) and was called for hooking on the play. Montreal was able to earn some early clears, but the toll of the extent of the defensive play finally broke through when Steeves ripped a wrister over Fowler’s left shoulder to put the Bruins ahead with 18 seconds left in the first period.

5) Fowler was called upon early in the second period when a streaking Jeannot took a pass vertically through the slot. Fraser Minten fed from the Habs blueline after erasing Texier in the Bruins corner seconds earlier, killing the Habs attack. Texier glided to the bench after slowly getting up off the ice, and he did not return for the rest of the game. Moments later, a little before the two-minute mark, Ivan Demidov scooped up a drifting loose puck that had been out of the reach of Zadorov and Pastrnak. Boston had been trying to transition in the neutral zone, but Demidov was skating downhill through the middle and couldn’t be caught. He undressed Swayman with a forehand to backhand to forehand move at speed and tied the game at two. Following their tying goal, the Habs played with a renewed vigor and pace. Unfortunately, and not for the first time, Josh Anderson found himself called for a minor penalty that was entirely avoidable. 170 feet from the Habs net at the Boston blueline, Anderson pursued Lohrei after the puck was passed up the ice. Anderson skated Lohrei into the boards and slashed into his body. The penalty killers played fantastically over the two disadvantaged minutes, both positionally and in the pursuit of loose pucks.

6) Dobson took a slash into his face from Steeves with around 5:30 left in the second. Both teams had been exchanging chances on the rush and with zone control, and the flow of the game was continuing to increase in intensity. Each whistle was followed by a scrum, and checks were thrown two to three seconds after they normally would be. Steeves was chasing down a puck as it drifted into the Canadiens zone alone with Dobson, and he swung his stick one-handed in a haymaker slashing motion. Steeves’s stick caught Dobson’s on the blade and rode it all the way up into his face, drawing blood. Montreal was able to gain the zone and set up on the power play numerous times, but could not complete that final pass of the play which would have granted an open net for the shooter. The aggression and structure from Boston’s defenders were on display, and the home crowd applauded their effort when Steeves stepped out of the box.

7) Late in the second, Montreal was able to escape going down 3–2 when a crash-the-net goal was called off for goaltender interference. Pastrnak skated into the blue paint, Slafkovsky and Carrier with him, and standing over a sprawled Fowler. The Canadiens’ netminder was attempting to stop an incoming shot, and as the loose puck in front of him was batted in, he was on his belly with 4.7 seconds to go. Zadorov and Slafkovsky were called for roughing after the scrum was cleared up, and the teams went back to the dressing rooms playing four-on-four hockey into the third period.

8) Hutson took control of the game in the third, pirouetting at the blue line to avoid contact and prolong possession time. At the same time, Boston became unraveled in the chippiness of the game. Bolduc started the chaos for the Bruins when he picked off another drifting puck in the middle of the ice when Zadorov’s stick shattered as he tried to pass. Bolduc gained the blue line and moved the puck up to Hutson, who was obviously already below the hash marks. Hutson then fed Suzuki slicing through the slot, but the captain lost a handle on the puck as he tried to move it to his backhand. Swayman’s right pad tripped up Suzuki as the forward also took the goaltender down, and Bolduc shot the rebound into an open net.

9) Boston head coach Marco Sturm then elected to challenge the Bolduc score for goaltender interference in a bewildering move to all those in attendance. Likely hoping that the judges and officials are as illiterate as they usually are, his or his team’s decision-making process did not take into account the fact that it is not interference to deke a goaltender, or attempt to. In either event, the challenge failed, and the Montreal Canadiens continued to pour on the pain by drawing another penalty on Jeannot. Montreal now worked the defenders with a two-man advantage, getting closer in their passes, but Dobson’s stick broke again on his first shot. The Habs would not be denied, however, as Caufield took the loose puck and did his best Patrick Kane impression to give the Canadiens another goal. Boston’s discipline continued to devolve, as did the mood of the crowd as the time ticked away in the latter stages of the third period.

10) As Montreal entered the zone following the goal and Kapanen took the puck down the wall, Hampus Lindholm puck his stick under Kapanen’s skates and took him down. The officials took no mercy and put the Bruins on another two-man kill to a showering of boos from the home crowd. The top players of the Canadiens closed in the box, Demidov fed Dobson for a one-timer blast at the top of the circle, and Suzuki batted the rebound out of the air to get the Habs to a dominating 5–2 lead with 9:51 remaining in the third. Hutson’s engine continued to hum until the final buzzer, as he pushed into the zone and sent the puck across the slot to feed Slafkovsky for another goal at 12:22 of the third. Montreal would close out the game without much further issue, a commanding 6–2 victory heading into the Christmas break.

HabsWorld Habs 3 Stars

1st Star – Lane Hutson

The Canadiens already have a captain who scores at above a point-per-game pace, but they probably actually have two. Quinn Hughes was named the captain in Vancouver when Bo Horvat left, and I believe those two players are very alike to the leaders in Montreal. Lane Hutson should never stop playing with the panache and flair that is natural to his game, but he cannot be a hockey player without his engine. Hutson’s legs and hips move as if they are on a gyro, separated from his upper body as the arms use opposite momentum to send a puck to his teammates. His movement is similar to when a quarterback is throwing across his body on the field, except in hockey, players can generate leverage with a stick and potential energy as they glide on the ice. Lane Hutson played in Boston as well, and the city’s programs clearly possess a level of professionalism and instruction that generates generational players for their hockey clubs.

Stats: 3 assists, +4, 2 shots, 22:44 T.O.I. 

2nd Star – Zachary Bolduc

Bolduc continued his torrid pace on the road, earning another goal and top power play minutes. More importantly, in this game was his attitude and engagement. Future contests with the Boston Bruins will continue to be as contentious as Tuesday’s, and Bolduc gave as good as he got in this game. He clearly got under the skin of Charlie McAvoy, and he directly drew a penalty from Jeannot that led to a goal. Bolduc intercepted the broken play from Zadorov that led to his goal because he was in the correct position and looking to skate downhill.

Stats: 1 goal, +1, 2 shots, 3 hits, 17:49 T.O.I. 

3rd Star –  Jacob Fowler

Fowler’s return to Boston only reinforced the image of the goaltender that Habs fans have had since beginning to watch him at Boston College. Calm in net, Fowler’s positioning allows pucks to hit him more naturally than Montreal’s other goaltenders, and his rebound control has been excellent. Fowler closed the door in the third period and did not allow any oxygen for the Bruins while the Canadiens were taking them to task. If Montreal could be thought not to have a goalie controversy before the break, all it will take is one poor performance from Montembeault or Dobes for the fans to be clamoring for their phenom from Florida to get between the pipes again.

Stats: 26 SV, 2 GA, .929 SV%