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In Hainsight: Surprise Win Against the Red Hot Penguins |
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Follow me @KarineHains for all updates about the Montreal Canadiens and women's hockey
The Penguins rolled into town with 2 wins and 12 goals to their name yesterday and after it was announced that Jake Allen was unavailable, most if not everyone thought the Habs would be destroyed but all were sorely mistaken. In his morning media availability, Martin St-Louis had said that the way to stop Pittsburgh’s powerful attack was to play in their own zone since they couldn’t score from there and his men heard him.
The new lines concocted by the bench boss worked very well and after 63 minutes of play, the Canadiens claimed a much-deserved win. Suzuki, Caufield and Dach found the back of the net while only Evgeni Malkin was able to get the puck past Samuel Montembeault twice.
While it wasn’t the rookies that found the back of the net for the locals, Kaiden Guhle was still the best player on the ice last night. In just 4 games at the NHL level, he’s been tasked with handling Matthew, Marner, Ovechkin and Crosby and he has looked very good doing it.
According to Natural Stat Trick, the Canadiens first pick in the 2020 draft spent 15:28 minutes on the ice against the Penguins captain last night and not only prevented him from getting any points, but he also limited him to a single shot on goal. On top of that, he also got his first two points in the NHL, sending Nick Suzuki up ice for the first goal and also being involved in the game-tying goal. It really was a remarkable game for him whichever way you look at it and it's amazing that he’s doing all this against the very best players in the league.
Meanwhile, Juraj Slafkovski found himself on the 4th line last night alongside Jake Evans and Mike Hoffman and he made the most of what little time on ice he had. He was particularly impressive in the first frame where he looked much more decisive than in previous outings, placing himself in the right spots to support the attack and dishing out passes quickly before anyone had time to interfere with him. It looks like the young Slovak is coming to grips with the North American game and realizing that on smaller ice, everything needs to happen faster. Unfortunately, he only got 6 shifts in the last 2 periods, but this was still his best game so far.
As for Arber Xhekaj, he found himself in the box twice last night, once because of an interference call which can pretty much be pinned on Jonathan Drouin who made an unexpected and unwarranted no look pass backwards and later on a high-stick penalty which was all on him. Meanwhile, Jordan Harris played yet another solid game spending over 20 minutes on the ice, when a veteran returns, he definitely won’t be the odd-man out.
It's also worth mentioning that prior to the season, there were concerns about the young players making costly mistakes but once again last night, it was veterans mistakes that lead to the 2 Pittsburgh goals. On the first one Christian Dvorak gave the puck away in the defensive zone and it soon ended up behind Montembeault. On the second one, the Canadiens’ netminder (who had a very good outing) gave up a juicy rebound on a shot he should have been able to control and since Suzuki had lost his man, Malkin was in all alone to put it in.
That being said though, the Habs' captain played an excellent game if you forget about that one mistake. He scored for a second game in row, took 8 shots on goal and won 10 of his 15 faceoffs. The line he formed with Caufield and Monahan took 16 of the Canadiens’ 39 shots throughout the game, an impressive total. I really liked seeing Monahan alongside the kids, aside from scoring the game-winning goal in the first game, Josh Anderson hasn’t hit his stride so far this season unlike Monahan. It’s almost unbelievable to believe that he was acquired for future considerations along with a 1st round pick, the man is an efficient center but can also play on the wing as a back-up option for faceoffs when the regular center gets kicked out of the faceoff. He reads the play very well and has the talent needed to ride with the Canadiens most talented forwards. Furthermore, it was his skating and skills that hypnotized the 3 Pittsburgh defenders in OT, they all followed him blindly and didn’t see his pass to Dach right in front of the net coming, an easy tap in goal for the big guy.
As for Jonathan Drouin, he had another discreet game up to the last few minutes of the 3rd when he showcased his hockey vision to send a perfect pass through the offensive zone right on Cole Caufield’s stick on the doorstep allowing the sniper to tie things up. That’s the kind of play Jonathan Drouin can do, he can perform magic, but he rarely does it. If he was able to impact games more often, Drouin would have a lot more fan but unfortunately, those magical moments are all too rare. Hopefully, that play catches the eye of a few GMs league wide…
Finally, I feel like Jeff Petry should have gotten a star last night, in his return to Montreal, the blue liner got 3 penalties, including the one in overtime which led to the Canadiens’ power play overtime game winner. So, 4 games into the season, the Habs are 2-2-0 and have showed that they can compete well against least physical teams when they have the last change at home. For those worrying about the Bedard sweepstake, don’t panic, the Coyotes also won last night against the Leafs who, by the way, have the same record as the Canadiens 4 games in. Sure, that’s unlikely to last, but it’s still a fun fact to mention.
Montreal Canadiens Blogger • 
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