10 Thoughts: Boston’s Power Play beats Caufield’s hat trick

The Canadiens, now out of the top three in the division, were in Boston on Saturday to visit the recently resurgent Bruins in a traditional divisional rivalry. With the team getting healthier, the pressure is now building for the young team to string together some wins to ensure a playoff berth for this spring’s derby.

While Cole Caufield did all he could to make that happen, his hat-trick game was spoiled by unnecessary Habs penalties and the failure of the penalty kill units to keep the Bruins’ attack to the outside. Three power play goals against in four opportunities looks bad no matter what the circumstances. Some fans will blame goaltending but Samuel Montembeault’s bottom line was a GSAx of about -0.4, far from disastrous. With some better defensive work, this game was very much winnable, though.

Habs Starting Lines

Caufield – Suzuki – Texier
Slafkovsky – Kapanen – Demidov
Anderson – Danault – Gallagher
Dach – Evans – Bolduc

Matheson – Dobson
Guhle – Hutson
Xhekaj – Carrier

Montembeault
Dobes

Ten Thoughts

1) Alexandre Texier was back in the lineup after a relatively short absence, having Joe Veleno sit in the press box for this game, at least. Kirby Dach moved to the fourth line to play with Jake Evans and Zachary Bolduc, giving the fourth line some muscle.

2) The Habs showed speed and had good rushes but could not get good scoring chances early in the period…until Caufield not only got a chance but also capitalized on it at 6:36 into the game. With the Boston first line and first defence pair spread four-across on their blue line, Mike Matheson carried the puck in with Charlie McAvoy and Marat Khusnutdinov
on him, but still managed to send a pass to Cole Caufield, who had slipped past Elias Lindholm and Jonathan Aspirot. Jeremy Swayman was surely at least surprised to see the diminutive winger suddenly appear in front of him, and was powerless to prevent Caufield from opening the scoring.

3) Zachary Bolduc was sent off for tripping Andrew Peeke at 9:28, the only minor penalty of the period (yes, this was addressed in the second and third periods). The Montreal penalty kill looked good, repeatedly clearing the zone and allowing the Bruins only one sustained attack. Morgan Geekie managed to make two shot attempts but both went wide of the Montreal goal.

4) With five minutes remaining in the opening period, Aspirot and Kirby Dach decided they had had enough of each other and went at it hammer and tongs, with gloves and Dach’s helmet flying about as they got set. The fight itself was not eventful, with Dach taking Aspirot down before any substantial hits were made. Dach did look like his thumb might be in some pain, though, certainly not what one wants to see just a few games into his return from long-term injury.

5) 25 seconds into the second period, Noah Dobson got called for interference and was sent off. The penalty kill was not as effective this time, with most clearing attempts failing to make it past the blue line. With 40 seconds remaining in the Boston advantage, Viktor Arvidsson was left completely alone to the left of Montembeault, so when Fraser Minten sent a cross-ice pass across, he had all the time in the world. Montembeault got his pad in front of his initial shot, but Arvidsson was able to lift the rebound over the pad to tie the game up at one goal apiece.

6) At 6:30, Pavel Zacha got his stick into Juraj Slafkovsky’s skates. He let the stick go but the damage was already done, and Zacha ended up in the penalty box to contemplate his miscue. He didn’t have very long to think about it, though, as Montreal’s top power play unit struck early. Caufield got the puck at the goal line and sent a pass to Suzuki. The captain sent it back to Caufield, who had moved up slightly, but got it back immediately. The second pass to Caufield was the bee’s knees, though, as the Canadiens’ sniper one-timed a shot past Swayman on the short side to retake the lead at 2-1.

7) The Habs weren’t the only ones with a strong power play unit, though, as the Bruins struck back about two minutes later. David Pastrnak led a Boston rush after Mike Matheson failed to capitalize on a shorthanded break, cut across the crease, and then passed back to Geekie for a tying goal into the open side of the net. Jake Evans failed to cover Geekie and then sprawled in the blue ice, taking away any possibility of Montembeault being able to get back and make a save. This was clearly not a goaltending issue.

8) Caufield countered with his third goal of the night at 13:29, and again on a power play, this time with Pastrnak in the bin for interfering with Evans. Caufield’s shot, too, was from his usual office, scoring from a small angle to the right of Swayman on a shot to the top of the net. That was, amazingly, only the second career hat trick for Caufield, the first one having been in the final game of the 2021-22 season.

9) And then there was the third period. Well, specifically 12 seconds of the third period that killed the Habs’ solid performance in this game. That started with Minten jumping onto the ice to catch a long pass on the left-side boards, and then cruising in and across the net with Alexandre Carrier not able to either stop him or strip him of the puck. That, and then a clever backhand shot through traffic that surprised Montembeault and evened the score at 3-3.

10) And then, just eight seconds after the Minten goal, there was a holding penalty on Carrier, for having grabbed Tanner Jeannot. Was this penalty really necessary? Why was Carrier even on the ice? It took only four seconds for Zacha to win the faceoff and start a set-piece play, culminating in a Geekie one-timer that slipped under Montembeault’s pad to give the Bruins a 4-3 lead and the eventual victory.

HW Habs Three Stars

First Star: Cole Caufield (3g, 0a, 6 shots, +1, 19:14 TOI) scored every single Montreal goal, so there is no question about the merit of handing him the first star. Caufield was fast, he was relentless, and his shot was deadly accurate on the night. A second career hat trick, and Caufield is now on pace for 45 goals. Oh yes, he’s also fourth in goal scoring in the entire league behind only Nathan MacKinnon, Connor McDavid, and Jason Robertson.

Second Star: Mike Matheson (0g, 1a, 2 shots, +1, 23:37) played another strong game (with Noah Dobson). The two-on-four rush (and pass to Caufield) was a particular highlight of his play on the night.

Third Star: Phillip Danault (0g, 0a, 1 shot, 2 blocks, 1 hit, 16:12 TOI) has very much upped his contribution to the team now that he has acclimatized himself and adapted to the team’s systems. The Anderson-Danault-Gallagher trio was not a particular scoring threat (xGF of 0.246) but they kept the Boston chances to a minimum, and Danault was strong on the penalty kill (“strong” being a relative term given the three power play goals given up to Boston).