Nine was enough.
Sam Montembeault said, “No more,” and it was so. The Senators’ nine-game winning streak against the Canadiens mercifully came to an end with a total team effort. Every line contributed at both ends. The defence bounced back from a spotty effort against the Bruins with a gritty 60 minutes, and Montemeault was almost unbeatable again.
Montembeault started the season with more than 100 minutes of shutout hockey. The last Canadiens goalie to do that after playing the season opener was Jacques Plante in 1955-56. Plante started the year with consecutive shutouts…and the Habs would go on to win five straight Cups. Montembeault has a .986 save percentage so far. That’s a far cry from his career mark of .898 going into the season.
Cole Caufield is the first Montreal player to score in the first three games of the season since Tomas Plekanec in 2014-15.
That shoulder is fully healed. We haven’t seen that kind of snipe from him since before the surgery. He scored five goals in his first 19 games last season but already has four in his first three this campaign.
Health permitting…look for him to crack the 40-goal mark for the first time in his career. It’s been a long time coming—no Habs skater has scored 40 goals this century. In fact – it’s been more than 30 years since Vinny Damphousse scored 40 goals for the Canadiens. The franchise that invented firewagon hockey has been doused for three decades….here’s hoping that the flames are back.
Loved the hit by Juraj Slafkovsky on his second shift. He rocked Thomas Chabot hard. He rode him hard into the boards twice on the forecheck early in the game and had Chabot hearing footsteps. Slaf is tied for eighth overall in hits, tied for 13th in assists, and tied for 17th overall in plus/minus.
The Big Guy has yet to be on the ice for a goal against despite being lined up beside Mitch Marner, David Pastrnak, and Brady Tkachuk pretty much every shift so far. He doesn’t appear to be very hungry for goals, and that would be the only criticism so far. He is a team guy, first and foremost, but it would be nice to see him shooting more often.
Kaiden Guhle was solid on the penalty kill once again. He had one very notable penalty kill. Two shot blocks and got his stick in the way of a pass that looked like a sure goal. Ended off an extra long shift by clearing the zone.
He has taken another step at the NHL level, but we tend to forget that he only has 117 games of NHL experience, and he’s playing right defence instead of his natural position on the left. There is plenty more developing yet to come, and that’s good news for the Habs. His added muscle has come in handy…he battled Tkachuk hard in front of the net and held his own.
Guhle is tied for second in the NHL in plus/minus after having played more than 22 minutes a game on the right side matched up against Marner, Auston Matthews, David Pastrnak, Tim Stutzle, and Brady Tkachuk despite having played what amounts to a season and a half in the NHL. That is remarkable.
Lane Hutson has the ability to add 30 goals to the forward group simply by being on the ice and creating goals. He has the skill set to make the Canadiens more dangerous offensively, much in the same way Quinn Hughes and Cale Makar did for their teams…but at an accelerated pace. At this point…I would be surprised if he DIDN’T score at least 60 points this season. He has IT. How often does he get checked when he has the puck…and who has the puck more than him? He’s special.
It’s arguable that the Canadiens have the best under-23 offensive defenceman and defensive defenceman in the league in Hutson and Guhle. The future is now for those two AND the hockey club. This team isn’t going to go away and hide – and then wait until Patrik Laine returns.
The seventh-place predictions don’t look very savvy right now – don’t be surprised if this club makes the playoffs. You can tell that they think they can, which is half of the battle….attitude. They know they are a good team, and they know pundits have underestimated them. If Montembeault is indeed the real deal – and right now, there is no reason to think otherwise – the Canadiens will be formidable opponents. Don’t sleep on them.
Evans, Anderson and Gallagher – when all three are on their games, that’s a helluva fourth line. Mind you – their ice time suggests that Marty doesn’t consider them to be fourth-liners. They have all started the season strongly. Gallagher is playing some of his best hockey of the past few seasons. He is at his best when he’s a shift disturber, and we saw plenty of instances of that in last night’s game. You can tell that he’s playing with confidence right now, and even though he’s always been more of a scorer than a passer, he has been making smart plays with the puck away from his net-front office.
Oliver Kapanen was given an opportunity on the second power play, and he looked good. In the preseason, he was stationed along the left wall on the man advantage. Last night, he was parked in the high slot area. He’s pretty good at going to the open lane to be a viable option for teammates with the puck. He heeled one pass and shot wide on another, but he will get some good scoring chances as he’s so adept at finding the passing lanes.
Kapanen is getting more and more comfortable with the NHL pace. I loved his forecheck and puck steals, and then he had a great dump into the corner for a teammate coming off the bench. Kapanen was on both the power play and penalty kill, and he ended up with more ice time than Kirby Dach. You can tell that the coaching staff likes him, and after watching him closely for the past three years, I knew that would be the case. He’s a very intelligent hockey player from a family with three generations of smart hockey players – no surprise there. He and Emil Heineman aren’t looking out of place.
It’s odd to see captain Nick Suzuki tied for seventh place in scoring, but that’s a testament to more balance in the scoring than his being off to a slow start in any regard. He is being asked to keep some of the league’s top scorers in check through the first three games, and he has been solid defensively. What matters to the captain is winning hockey games, and he will take a 67 percent winning percentage over gaudy point totals any day.
When you compare Alex Barre-Boulet’s second game versus Boston to Heineman’s second game last night – the former Tampa Bay winger may find himself with a permanent spot in the stands for the time being. Barre-Boulet struggled versus the Bruins, finishing -2 and missing some defensive assignments.
Heineman, on the other hand, scored his first career NHL goal to open the scoring and worked his tail off. He finishes his checks and has the size and ability to play more of a power game than Barre-Boulet. I wasn’t sure he would be ready for NHL action going into the season, but he is showing everyone that he can handle a fourth-line NHL role right now. It’s good to have multiple roster options.
Justin Barron and Arber Xhekaj have not had great starts to the season, and one wonders if they may find themselves out of the lineup sooner rather than later. Jayden Struble is a decent bet to replace one of them when he’s healthy, and the way Logan Mailloux started the AHL season also suggests that he is in the wrong league.
If the Canadiens remain in the playoff hunt (and right now, they are very much in it), there won’t be much choice other than to play the most deserving defencemen. The team takes precedence over the player. GM Ken Hughes will have to make a hard decision on Barron soon. Either trade him or try to send him down.
Kirby Dach has not had a solid start to the season, but that’s understandable, given that he is returning from a significant knee injury. Let’s give him a few weeks to get up to speed and feel entirely comfortable out there. Dach has only taken eight faceoffs so far, and last night, he took one. He sits at 12 percent in the faceoff dot.
Alex Newhook and Dach have won 31 percent of their faceoffs between them, and that’s not going to cut it. Kapanen is 50 percent on his faceoffs so far and has shown in the past that he is decent on draws. He won’t hurt the team defensively on the second line, either. It may well be time to give him an opportunity, centering the second line and seeing how he fares.
