The Montreal Canadiens decided to dress up early for Halloween as they were Jekyll & Hyde, blowing a 3-0 lead against the Edmonton Oilers to lose 4-3 and not even earning a point in overtime. Although the Canadiens started off slow in the 1st period as Alexei Emelin took a very early penalty, they rebounded quickly and scored 3 goals within a span of less than 8.5 minutes to take what seemed to be a commanding lead. The Canadiens played in the manner that got them 9 wins in a row - fast, aggressive and shooting the puck. Brendan Gallagher tipped a P.K. Subban powerplay shot to open the scoring. Torrey Mitchell followed it up with his 5th(!) goal of the season following a great fore-check and play by Devante Smith-Pelly. Less than a minute later Andrei Markov fed Alex Galchenyuk a seeing eye pass who scored and gave the Habs their 3-0 lead. Heading into the 1st intermission, it seemed that Les Boys were back and found a way to rebound following their loss against the Vancouver Canucks.
In the 2nd period, Hyde showed up and the Canadiens that we had become accustomed to seeing when playing with the lead, the team that would keep pressing rather than sit back suddenly disappeared. In its place the 2014-2015 Canadiens appeared and the skill and speed of the Oilers took over. Seemingly content to sit back and stop shooting pucks, the Canadiens were lucky to escape the 2nd period with a 3-1 lead. Unfortunately a wakeup call never came between periods and the Oilers continued to press, finally breaking through and scoring 3 goals against Carey Price in the 3rd period to win the game 4-3 in regulation.
Props & Flops from last night’s game:
Props:
Connor McDavid - The 2015 1st overall pick came as advertised. There is no doubt that he is a generational talent and it is almost scary to think about how much better he will get. His speed is second to none. For an 18 year old he is quite strong on the puck. McDavid has an incredibly high hockey IQ and is more than just defensively responsible as he is already killing penalties. What’s more is that he makes his teammates better and creates opportunities for them as well. McDavid has found excellent chemistry with Nail Yakupov and former Canadiens Benoit Pouliot. The Young Stars team from North America for next year’s World Cup of Hockey is very lucky to have him as the way he is playing, he would easily be on Team Canada’s roster…
Flop:
David Desharnais - His poor play and effort directly led to the Oilers winning goal with just over a minute left to play in the game. Perhaps it’s not fair to fully blame Desharnais for his poor game against the Oilers. He spent too much time matched up against either the Oilers top line of Taylor Hall, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Leon Draisaitl or McDavid’s line. Check out the link to War-On-Ice’s excellent table that shows how much each player against one another:
Desharnais played over 6:00 minutes against the Hall line and 4:00 minutes against McDavid. Considering Desharnais played a total of 13:37 minutes, that is too much time going against the oppositions best players. Desharnais is not a defensive centerman. The Canadiens have an excellent 4th line of Mitchell, Smith-Pelly and usually Brian Flynn, although Paul Byron played in his place as Flynn played in Alex Semin’s spot against the Oilers. They are better suited to shutting down the opponent's top players compared to Desharnais.
Props:
Torrey Mitchell - His play through 11 games has made Canadiens general Marc Bergevin look like a genius for acquiring him at last year’s trade deadline. Bergevin gave up a 7th round pick and minor league player Jack Nivens to get Mitchell and then re-signed the potential UFA to a very reasonable 3 year contract worth an AAV of $1.2 million usd. His 5 goals is one short of his total from the previous season and Mitchell is now tied for 2nd in the team goals scored with Brendan Gallagher and Tomas Plekanec. The only knock on his game right now is his faceoffs as Mitchell is only winning 44% of his draws so far and in the past 3 games he has been especially poor in the circle. Against the Oilers he only won 22% of faceoffs taken… With some extra work at practice I am sure that this will be corrected…
Flop:
Alexei Emelin - He had one of his worst games of the year against the Oilers. Emelin looked slow against the speedy and skilled Oilers. He played the 2nd most minutes (22:11) in the game after partner Jeff Petry (22:30) and had 4 giveaways. For two games in a row Emelin has played more minutes than P.K. Subban (21:00). If this trend continues to happen the Canadiens will lose more games than they win. Subban also had 4 giveaways on the night, but one cannot say that the Canadiens have a better chance at winning when Emelin plays more than he does…
Props:
Oilers Call-Ups - Leon Draisaitl was called up for the game as Jordan Eberle was put on the long term injury reserve. He made the most of his opportunity playing with Hall and Nugent-Hopkins and scored two goals including the game winner. Another 1st round pick, though “only… 3rd overall, he will be a big part of the Oilers future as he continues to develop. Darnell Nurse played in his second game of the year and showed maturity for his young age. He contributed with an assist and 19 minutes of strong play.
Flops:
Canadiens New Losing Streak - After winning 9 games in a row the Canadiens are now on a very different streak having lost two in a row. Having outshoot the Oilers 11-5 in the first period, the Canadiens could only muster 5 shots each in the 2nd and 3rd periods. If you don’t shoot you’re not going to score, pretty simple… The Canadiens stopped playing the style that had brought them so much early success this season. Were they enjoying the McDavid show?
«C'est très difficile à accepter... On s'est mis à jouer fancy, à perdre des rondelles» -Michel Therrien #RDSCH pic.twitter.com/V0OZP1S7h2
— L'Antichambre (@antichambre) October 30, 2015Neither Here Nor There:
- Carey Price was left to dry the past two games but this is still somewhat concerning:
Carey Price allowed 9 goals in his first 7 games this season...and has now allowed 9 goals in his last 2 games.
— John Shannon (@JSportsnet) October 30, 2015- Nathan Beaulieu rebounded nicely from his big mistake against the Canucks and played a solid 15:40 minutes, ending the night a +1 and with 4 blocked shots
- As my husband suggested while watching the game, is Dale Weise turning into the new Turner Stevenson with ‘Hands of Stone’? While he has 3 goals this season, he could easily have double that if he could bury his chances…
- Speaking of Weise, I did not think that he should have taken Semin’s spot on the Canadiens 2nd powerplay unit. I would have preferred Smith-Pelly playing the role of Gallagher in front of the net or would have given the opportunity to one of Fleischmann/Eller.
- Paul Byron made his Canadiens debut and played fine but did not do anything to really make himself noticeable. Of note, he is the first forward to wear # 41 since Brent Gilchrist.
5 Questions Heading into Tonight’s Game vs the Calgary Flames:
1) Will Mike Condon get the start tonight against Calgary? The Canadiens have a busy schedule coming up and so far Price has not played both nights of a back-to-back.
2) Does Alex Semin draw back into the lineup against the Flames? I imagine he does and hopefully he will bring a spark with him. Flynn can play on the Galchenyuk line for one game but he is not the answer. Semin must be given the opportunity to rediscover the early chemistry he had with Galchenyuk and Eller.
3) Will P.K. Subban play less than Jeff Petry and Alexei Emelin for the 3rd game in a row? Hopefully not… The Canadiens need to win and they need to win convincingly. The more Subban plays the better he is…
4) Now that the first lineup change has happened to the forwards, when will the opportunity arise for Greg Pateryn and Jarred Tinordi to get into the lineup?
5) Will the Canadiens be tired playing on the 2nd night of a back to back or will they find their game and jump against the Flames? The Canadiens must be able to find a way to use their speed and be aggressive. This will also lead towards drawing more penalties. The Canadiens Powerplay is finally clicking but they have been creating fewer opportunities over their losses. The Canadiens will be rewarded if they can remember to play a full 60 minutes…
*** If there are lineup changes I will come back to edit/announce ***
Puck Drops Tonight at 9pm!
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