The Montreal Canadiens might have kept the score close thanks to Jakub Dobes on Monday night, but at no point did it feel like Martin St-Louis' men would have a happy ending in Game 3.
After losing Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Final against the Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday night, the Montreal Canadiens were hoping to bounce “forward” with a win on home ice. Martin St-Louis had decided to make a single change to his lineup, scratching Oliver Kapenen and replacing him with Joe Veleno, who plays a much more physical game and can have surprising speed at times.
The visitors started Game 3 much like they had ended the previous game, storming the Canadiens' territory and taking shots from every which way. Even though it’s their usual modus operandi, the Habs seemed a bit surprised early on.
Early Struggles
It looked like Canadiens fans would be in for a long night in the first few minutes; Montreal was just unable to get past the red line. Every time the Habs got out of their zone, they were swarmed by the Canes, who took possession back. When they got a power play, the first unit wasn’t even able to enter the zone, the pass back has become insanely predictable, and Montreal needs to mix things up.
While Rod Brind’Amour’s men are known for taking plenty of shots from all over the place, even if they aren’t the most threatening of shots, by the end of the period, they were creating good scoring chances as the Canadiens struggled with their coverage.
Carolina has quite a tough attack to contain, with a lot of speed and permutations, making it hard on a man-on-man defense. The buzzer rescued the Habs at the end of the first as the visitors came rather close to taking a 3-1 lead.
Momentum Shift
The second period looked a lot like the first, with the Canadiens appearing to be skating in quicksand in their own zone at times. Thankfully for the Habs, however, they got a break when Jordan Martinook was given two minutes for slashing Lane Hutson’s stick out of his hands. The referee’s arm had stayed down, but when the blueliner looked at the ref pleading his case, it was called.
That served as a wake-up call for the Canadiens, and it was Hutson himself who capitalized on the man-advantage he had gained. The blueliner and Caufield entered Carolina’s zone and made a great give-and-go play, which meant Hutson had an easy tap-in to tie up the game.
Even with the score tied and more offensive opportunities, the Canadiens were still incredibly sloppy in their own zone. Even though Josh Anderson is a menace on the forecheck, he even dispossessed Frederik Andersen behind his net once; his play in the defensive zone left a lot to be desired. On a few occasions, the puck was within his reach, but he didn’t make the play. Montreal also still struggles to flip pucks out of the zone, with Jake Evans being guilty of a turnover that landed right in a Canes player’s hand. The attempted clearance was barely at waist level. Meanwhile, Jakub Dobes was making stops in various ways, keeping his side in the game, and even getting a bit of help from lady luck at times.
After 40 minutes, the score was 2-2, even though the Canes were outshooting Montreal 25-11. It’s not shocking given how they aren’t very selective when it comes to shooting, but the Canadiens really need to shoot more. There were a few occasions where Andersen dropped the puck with his glove, something the Tricolore needs to capitalize on.
Stuck In Neutral
Shooting is essential to winning; that’s simple logic, but the Canadiens came close to winning without shooting. In the third frame, Montreal threw the puck toward the net, and Nikolaj Ehlers dove to block it with his stick, but the puck went straight behind Andersen. Thankfully for the two Danes, though, the play was called back for offside. In the end, the Sainte-Flanelle only put one shot on net in the third frame.
Late in the third, Nick Suzuki and Caufield took off on an odd-man rush. The defender was cheating towards the sniper, preventing the pass, but Suzuki still tried to feed him the puck rather than take a shot. That’s not the only time on the night where a promising play led to no shot; there seems to be a crisis of confidence amongst St-Louis’ men, nobody wants to be the one who takes the shot. While the coach often says that you have to be careful not to overcoach a talented player, even he admitted on Monday that the Canadiens didn’t have enough volume:
Obviously, we don’t want to pass up on shots. If there’s an opportunity there that’s something better than a shot, but I feel like we don’t create enough of those decisions that you have to make, so we've got to work on that first. Then, guys can be selective in their decisions, but we should have more volume. We’ll work on that.
The Habs often look for the perfect play, complicating matters for themselves. We’ve seen so many no-look back passes in these playoffs that become turnovers. The Canadiens are not generating enough opportunities to afford such waste. On Monday night, the Habs had a total of 36 shot attempts, but only 12 made it on net. That included a single shot in the third and one in OT. Meanwhile, Carolina had 38 shots and 92 shot attempts. Two and a half times more attempts than Montreal.
Before Wednesday night’s tilt, the Habs will need to find a way to deal with the Hurricanes’ in-your-face forecheck; otherwise, this could be a short series. It felt like Montreal agonized over 74 minutes, and the result seemed unavoidable, even though Dobes made it close.
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