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Habs turn to comeback as they defeat Florida 3-2 in OT. Puck props & flops |
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Karma has a strange way of working itself out as the Montreal Canadiens came back from a 2-1 deficit late in the third period against the Florida Panthers to ultimately win the game 3-2 in overtime on Thursday night. It was just the night beforehand on Wednesday that the Canadiens had blow a 3-1 lead against the Tampa Bay Lightning as they lost that game 4-3 in overtime. In the end, it doesn't quite matter how it happened, just that the Canadiens were able to take three out of four points on the Florida portion of their current road trip.
Florida would open scoring in the first period on a funny bounce as Al Montoya stopped Jason Demers’ initial shot but the rebound hit Shea Weber’s shin and found the back of the net. Max Pacioretty tied the game at one on a powerplay no less in the second period, the recipient of a pretty passing play. The Panthers answer right back with their own power play goal as Vincent Trocheck had time and space to put one past Montoya. It appeared for a long time that the goal would stand as the game winner but with just a few minutes left to play, Brendan Gallagher scored his first goal since November 26th, just his sixth on the season. It did not take the Canadiens long to win the game in overtime as Phillip Danault took advantage of Pacioretty’s hard work to win the puck along the boards in the Canadiens zone and passed it to the streaking Danault who went in alone on James Reimer to score the game winning goal. While the Canadiens played perhaps a better overall game in Tampa Bay, they were able to put their overtime loss behind them and work through their own comeback against the Panthers.
Puck props and flops:
Prop:
Al Montoya - His fourth win of the season was a long time coming as Montoya’s last victory came October 26th against the New York Islanders. He has deserved a win like no other for quite some time, notably dating back to the Canadiens embarrassing 10-0 to the Columbus Blue Jackets in mid November. Against the Panthers, Montoya did his best to keep the Canadiens in the game and not let the Panthers extend their lead to two goals. He also did his best Carey Price impersonation, making this highlight reel save:
The Canadiens power play - The Canadiens scored with the man advantage for the second consecutive game and associate coach Kirk Muller has altered the team’s strategy to a 1-3-1 deployment and so far the team is seeing positive results. It also helps that the Canadiens right now have the proper personnel on the top unit as it is comprised of Max Pacioretty, Brendan Gallagher, Alexander Radulov, Shea Weber and Nathan Beaulieu. Beaulieu helps to distribute the puck at the point while Weber gets in position for the one timer. However, he also acts as a decoy, forcing teams to respect while creating space for the other Canadiens players, in this instance Pacioretty. The powerplay still is not perfect but it is a work in progress that is finally trending in the right direction.
Max Pacioretty - The captain lead the way with a goal and an assist, opening the scoring for his team leading 15th of the season and assisting on the game winner by Danault by doing the dirty work and winning his battle. Pacioretty is criticized all too often for being soft and not stepping up when the game is on the line. It is time for that rhetoric to end. It is not even halfway through the season and Pacioretty already has four game winning goals not to mention making the key play on Danault’s winner against the Panthers. He has six points in his last six games and twelve points in his last ten.
Phillip Danault - Just when you think that perhaps it is time to end the Danault as a number one center experiment, he comes up big for the Canadiens scoring not only the game winning goal but also setting up Gallagher’s game tying goal. The top line had a rough outing against the Lightning but came back strong against the Panthers. He also bounced back from a subpar night in the faceoff circle against the Lightning to win 55% of his draws against the Panthers. Danault is able to use his speed and smarts to make it work on the first line and proved that he is still up for the task of holding Alex Galchenyuk’s spot warm. Not only is he making it very difficult for David Desharnais to get back into the lineup once healthy, Danault is also making Tomas Plekanec expendable especially considering the expansion draft for the Las Vegas Golden Knights.
Brendan Gallagher - Perhaps the only person happier than Gallagher that he scored for the first time in over a month was Radulov:
However, before Gallagher even scored the game tying goal, he was having a positive impact on the game. On Pacioretty’s power play goal Gallagher was perfectly screening James Reimer, as he has done so so often in the past. These are the little/big things that Gallagher must continue to do in order to keep contributing offensively.
Flops:
The Canadiens penalty kill - They have allowed their opponents to score a goal with the man advantage for three consecutive games. On the road the Canadiens are particularly weak with a success rate of only 74.1%. They are not being nearly aggressive enough on the penalty kill and they should be using their speed more to their advantage in their own end, rather than sitting back and waiting for their opponents to make plays.
Tomas Plekanec - He is having a difficult time stepping up and at times he looks like he is simply going through the motions. Plekanec is still getting power play time but it seems it is for a lack of better options rather than meriting it. Danault has played so well in Galchenyuk’s absence that it is hard to imagine him going back to playing the wing once the Canadiens get healthy again. At this point, it would not be surprising at all if Plekanec is left unprotected come June’s expansion draft…
Torrey Mitchell - When Galchenyuk, Desharnais and Andrew Shaw all went down with injuries, it was hard to imagine that Mitchell would become the team’s defacto second line center. For the most part he has played admirably enough but it is clear that he is playing better at home than on the road. Mitchell only has two points on the road season compared to ten at the Bell Centre. Against the Panthers, Mitchell had three giveaways and lost the draw that led to the Panthers second goal. The Canadiens will need him to be better as they continue on their road trip.
Cheers and follow along!
Montreal Canadiens Blogger • 
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