1) When Michel Therrien says "the breaks weren't on our side," he's not wrong. Ryan Ellis' innocuous shot from the point bounced off Jeff Petry's skate and into the top shelf behind Carey Price, who was so good last night that he didn't even have to face shooters to make saves.
And if people want to hang this overtime loss on P.K. Subban's heroics turned theatrics, I doubt there's anything I or anyone else can say to talk some sense into them. But, in the literal sense, that was the definition of a bad bounce.
The fact is, that was an outstanding hockey game, doused in speed, contact, great scoring chances and even better goaltending, drowned in playoff atmosphere.
The Preds lost in similar fashion earlier this year, with Subban scoring on the powerplay in overtime to bury them.
If you know hockey well, there were no more miracles for Price to turn once Nashville got that 4-on-3 powerplay.
Mike Ribiero was made for that situation. Manning the right side of the ice with two right-handed shooting options on the left (one of them being Shea Weber), there was no option for Montreal's penalty killers but to give Filip Forsberg an extra inch. He took a foot. Game over.
2) There were several things to like for the Canadiens, not the least of which was reaching 100 points with eight games remaining.
It's remarkable that the guys at L'antichambre chose this game specifically to single out Devante Smith-Pelly, who--relegated to a peripheral role on the fourth line some three shifts into the game--had little if anything to do with the loss. He was implicated, he was emotionally there, but his execution fell flat.
I'm not sure anyone on either side played a particularly bad game.
3) Impressive--was the work of Nathan Beaulieu and Greg Pateryn as a pair.
Considering Tom Gilbert's late-season ascent, both of these players have given Michel Therrien a tough decision to make.
Gilbert will be used. If Michel Therrien prefers him on the left of Petry rather than on the right of Emelin, maybe the decision has little to do with the performances offered by Pateryn and Beaulieu.
Both of them have proven to be extremely serviceable.
But say it were up to them...
4) What Greg Pateryn offers over 10-14 minutes of ice-time is perfectly predictable. He's stable and steady. He'll take hits to make plays. He won't panic with the puck. He'll block shots, he'll clear the zone, and he's probably more of an effective passer than anyone imagined.
5) Beaulieu is more of a presence in all three zones. Currently, he's the only defender outside of Subban that's as comfortable skating the puck out of the zone as he is passing it or clearing it. He's active in the offensive zone, and he's physical and fearless.
When it comes to the playoffs, it's really got to be about the match up.
On pure talent and experience, Beaulieu beats out Pateryn. On speed he beats him too. But if you put him in, you're going to get more out of him over more minutes.
Over less minutes, Pateryn's predictability is probably an attractive commodity to Therrien.
6) P.A. Parenteau was Montreal's best forward on the ice last night. But, even more encouraging is the build up to getting to be labelled that. From game-to-game, since his regularity ended as a healthy scratch and his agent called out the coach for not giving him an opportunity to succeed when called upon, he's gotten better and better.
So, here's how I see that.
This was the perfect time to find out what kind of character this player possesses. Was he going to sulk? Or was he going to grab the bull by the horns and perform, when the pressure to do so was ramped up significantly.
Parenteau would've had no one to blame but himself if he hadn't produced over the last number of games. You can trash bucket Therrien's statement about production not being the determinant for Parenteau's security. Intensity wasn't going to be enough.
Parenteau's offered great intensity on both lines he's been tested on, and the production is critical for a--as his agent put it--goal-starved team.
So, full credit goes to the player here.
7) And full credit goes to Alexei Emelin for the way he's been playing since he emerged from a shoulder injury that kept him out of the lineup for a month.
His physical presence defies the puck possession metrics that paint him unfavorably, though his critics on twitter--who all happened to like his game last night--were the first to defend his lopsided, negative Corsi, by citing his heavy usage starting in the defensive zone.
8) I keep referencing it for a reason, but the emotional turnaround a week ago in Tampa Bay has given us some evidence of what kind of team the Canadiens will be in the playoffs.
Marc Bergevin was recently on record with Renaud Lavoie, suggesting he very well may not name a captain next season. I suspect that might have something to do with pending expiration of contracts for Andrei Markov and Tomas Plekanec.
The one thing that this culture of shared leadership has done is made it comfortable for every player to grab a portion.
To borrow another hockey cliche, there are few if any passengers in the Canadiens room. That has to be a big part of why the team hasn't dropped more than three straight games all year.
As big of a reason as it is, the other portion is Price's leadership, in every sense of the word.
9) I don't know if Max Pacioretty will score five goals over the next eight games. I certainly wouldn't put it past him.
I'm pretty sure that Pacioretty would give back 35 this year to score regularly in the playoffs.
He's going to be a marked man there. But here's what I know about Max Pacioretty; he thrives on proving people wrong.
10) Eight games from the post-season, and the Canadiens could be up against just about anybody in the current Eastern Conference playoff race. That's pretty exciting, considering how stable their rise has been all season.
A match up with Tampa March 30th is going to probably settle who finishes atop the Atlantic Division. A win for Montreal could help plant the seed of doubt they partially established a week ago with their dominance in the second half of a game that looked like it was going to be routine for the Lightning.