When the Leafs released their line-up earlier today, Habs fans thought that the game was in the bag...After all there hardly was a single NHLer on that roster:
Tonight's Leafs lines in Montreal. #LeafsForever
— Toronto Maple Leafs (@MapleLeafs) September 23, 2019
Agostino-Shore-Petan
Korshkov-Gaudet-Read
Archibald-Brooks-Bracco
Engvall-Elynuik-Aberg
Harpur-Holl
Gravel-Schmaltz
Rubins-Liljegren
Hutchinson
Woll pic.twitter.com/RhBWXLHIVQ
Unfortunately, maybe the Canadiens' players thought exactly the same thing since they played without conviction or much effort for the first two periods. To be fair, the Habs didn't have a full NHL contingent either but still, they should have dominated. Those were the lines deployed by Claude Julien:
La formation projetée du match de ce soir.
— Canadiens Montréal (@CanadiensMTL) September 23, 2019
The projected lines for tonight's game.#GoHabsGo pic.twitter.com/q5Y5Z6SqSE
RDS thought it would be funny to tell us that Tatar in his career has 144 goals while the whole of the Leafs' line up have 145 but when you realize that the Leafs are leading 2-0 after two periods, that just makes it even more depressing.
While the power play seemed to be working rather well on Saturday night, it was a completely different story tonight as it failed to even convert on a single of its 4 opportunities. The two units were made up by these players:
PP1: Kotkaniemi, Armia, Domi, Tatar and Petry PP2: Cousins, Barber, Hudon, Brook and Drouin
I think Chantal Machabée might have been on to something with this tweet:
Ce premier avantage numérique du CH n’est pas convaincant! O๠est @phildanault ?? 😊 #CH
— Chantal Machabee (@ChantalMachabee) September 23, 2019
While I did try to see the positive in each of the first 4 preseason games, tonight it's hard to do anything but focus on the negatives which the game highlighted.
Jesperi Kotkaniemi: He has yet to impress so far this training camp. He said he added some weight and to be honest, that sounded like a good idea to ensure that he wasn't that roughed up anymore but now, he appears to be struggling to carry the extra weight. Furthermore, it was a very difficult evening face-off wise and well, he didn't show much to wet our appetite. To be fair though, he isn't exactly saddled with the best linemates once more.
Charles Hudon: He's played in 4 games so far and he has yet to make any kind of impact. He does get opportunities but he fails to convert them and more often than not, he looks stressed and like he's lacking confidence. To be honest, this might have been his very last chance and it wouldn't surprise me to see him waived either after the game or tomorrow.
Lack of discipline: The Canadiens took 5 penalties which is no way to win a game. That being said, there was a bench minor for an unsuccessful coach's challenge. This is a new rule this year, now it's not only the offside challenge that can mean a penalty but any unsuccessful challenge. Something tells me we should be getting used to getting bench minors.
Jonathan Drouin: Repeating myself here but this is not going well. Drouin played a grand total of 11:57 tonight, he was the least used player by Julien and co. Of course the fact that there were so many penalties didn’t help his ice-time...Time is running out.
All that being said, give credit where credit is due, the Leafs' youngsters wanted it more and deserved it more. They worked hard all night and they didn't steal that game. A match isn't won on talent and reputation alone and the hardest working team will more often than not triumph. With less than 6 minutes to go, the Leafs are leading 3-0 the last goal coming from Yegor Korshkov (his second of the game) after he masterfully dispossessed Brett Kulak who had looked pretty good in training camp so far.
Relentless 😤#LeafsForever pic.twitter.com/jJeqo8VJTy
— Toronto Maple Leafs (@MapleLeafs) September 24, 2019
The Canadiens did somewhat wake up in the third taking plenty of shots on Hutchinson's net but it just wasn't enough to beat him. Garret Sparks is gone and the back-up job is up for grabs, good on Hutchinson for pitching a shutout tonight.
Both teams will meet again on Wednesday night and we can only hope that it's a better one that tonight's snoozefest from the Habs.
In his post game comments, Claude Julien mentioned that Price was slated to play tonight but wasn’t good to go because of a lightly bruised hand. This shouldn’t sideline him for too long. Four players were also sent down: Josh Brook, Jake Evans, Alexandre Belzile and Riley Barber.
In short, this is a game that will better be forgotten and let's hope that when the Leafs have their A team on the ice Wednesday night, the Canadiens will show up to play. Hopefully by then more cuts will have been made and the Habs will have a near NHL line-up.