The Montreal Canadiens' blueline showed it was ready in the first game against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Sunday night.
There were plenty of question marks about the Montreal Canadiens’ blueline ahead of their first-round series against the Tampa Bay Lightning. Not only has the Lightning got a high-octane attack, but the Habs lost ace defenseman Noah Dobson right before the playoffs, which undoubtedly threw a spanner in the works for the defensive corps.
Martin St-Louis and his coaching staff rolled up their sleeves and came up with a blueline brigade that got the job done on Sunday night. Alexandre Carrier, who was coming back from an injury, played a great game. We had our doubts about using him to the right of minute muncher Mike Matheson, but for one game at least, he slotted right in. In 18:36 of action, he blocked three shots, landed two hits, including one that sent his opponent flying, a welcome development as he’s normally on the receiving end of those. He even had an assist on the first goal of the game, pinching at just the right time to feed Josh Anderson.
The duo of Arber Xhekaj (5 hits, 1 blocked shot, 1 shot) and Jayden Struble (2 hits) played a smart, yet simple, game. Xhekaj played his intimidating role without even needing to drop the gloves and launched a couple of booming shots to the net. While only one of them got to Andrei Vasilevskiy’s net, their velocity makes them damaging shots to block. As for the one that did get to the Lightning’s net, it did create some havoc because it was hard for the masked man to control.
As for Kaiden Guhle, he took an unfortunate high-sticking penalty, which made Martin St-Louis livid, as it was the result of the blueliner being interfered with, but the rules state you need to be in control of your stick. The Albertan didn’t look great on the Bolts’ second goal either as the puck slid between his two feet on its way to the front of the net, but aside from that, he played his role perfectly. In 21:21 of action, the 6-foot-3 blueliner landed three hits and blocked one shot. As always, his hits were painful for the opponents.
Only two rearguards had turnovers on Sunday: Mike Matheson (two) and Lane Hutson (four). Given how much time they spent on the ice, though, that was to be expected. The former spent just under 23 minutes on the ice, blocked six shots, and landed four hits. He looked like he was everywhere on the ice. As for the latter, he was on the ice for 29 minutes, took two shots, blocked one, and had the primary assist on the game-winning goal, spotting Juraj Slafkovsky in acres of space. Just par for the course for Hutson.
Of course, it was only one game and the job is far from done, but that certainly was a very good start to the series for the blueline, which was seen as one of the Canadiens’ weaknesses going in.
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