The Canadiens started their second week of action by welcoming the Pittsburgh Penguins tonight at the Bell Centre.
A Thanksgiving weekend is not complete without a good dose of hockey, and the Montreal Canadiens certainly made sure their fans had a good holiday weekend. They finally treated them to a win against the Ottawa Senators and hosted the Pittsburgh Penguins to wrap up the weekend.
This match-up against the Pittsburgh Penguins was the worst start to a game the Canadiens have had; 10 minutes into the first frame, the Canadiens still hadn't managed to get a single puck on the net. On the start, Kaiden Guhle explained:
For whatever reason we come out flat and that’s got to change. The first ten minutes are the most important ones.
Lars Eller scored the first goal of the game on a quick shot that Samuel Montembeault wasn't expecting—not so quick, in any case. It felt like the Pens were on the power play for much of the early going, even though they weren't until Hutson cast a spell on them.
Once again, Lane Hutson acted like a sparkplug, the Habs' most exciting prospect since...(I'm not sure who actually since it's been so long). He controlled the puck in the offensive zone, danced around with it, and ignited both the Bell Centre and his teammates in one swift move, which led to the team's first two shots. In the same game, Hutson dazzled both Evgeny Malkin and Sidney Crosby, which is not bad for a rookie, even though he took a few too many risks tonight.
Even though Rickard Rakell doubled Pittsburgh's lead nearly 17 minutes in, it didn't take much more than a minute for Guhle to cut the lead in half with a cannon of a shot, with Nick Suzuki and Mike Matheson getting the assists. It was the defenseman's sixth point in seven games against Pittsburgh, no small feat.
Early in the second, Ryan Graves took an ill-advised slashing penalty, and Juraj Slafkovsky was rewarded for his insistence behind the net when he was able to get loose right by Tristan Jarry. Suzuki served him the perfect pass, and he barely even had to tap it in to tie the score. This power-play marker was the Canadiens' fourth in as many games. Who would have bet on that after going 0-for-30 in the pre-season?
A little over ten minutes later, after Emil Heineman was hit from behind by Jesse Puljujarvi, who was assessed a 2-minute boarding call, and Guhle got two for roughing, Heineman decided to answer where it hurts on the scoreboard. After the four-on-four had expired, he found himself on a 2-on-1 alongside Oliver Kapanen, and he elected to shoot, sending a laser in the top corner of the net to put the Canadiens up by one goal. His coach likes how deceptively quickly he can unleash his shot but adds the opposing goaltenders don't know him yet.
Eller wasn't having any of it, though, and he scored his second of the game to bring everyone back to square one less than 2 minutes later. The goal was made possible when Matheson and Justin Barron joined in the attack, which was a shame as both had a good game until then. Samuel Montembeault wasn’t happy with that one, though; he explained:
I dropped my hands too quickly when I went down and I gave the top half of the net.
The third period was tough for the Canadiens, they surrendered three unanswered goals to the Penguins, which mainly resulted from lack of execution on their part. Chasing the game, it's hard to know when to roll the dice and when to be more conservative, and tonight, at times, Hutson tried to do too much, but that's part of the growing pains with a young offensive defenseman. St-Louis explained:
He'll kind of learn as he goes what he can get away with and not, it's part of learning. You know, we'll keep having conversations about it. [...] It's what I mean, you've got to be careful with the way you coach those guys. Is this a trend? Is this a one off? Like in terms of his risk taking, but you know, he plays with a lot of good intentions.
This is the beauty of having hired a coach like St-Louis to head this young team, he's ready to live with the mistakes and he's not going to throw one of his young guys who means well under the bus. Too often in the recent past, the Canadiens had bench boss who were focussing on defense first, they didn't have much of a choice mind you with the players they had, but they ran such a tight ship that youngsters played afraid. Nobody wants to be nailed to the bench, sent to the press gallery, or even demoted to Laval.
In the end, the Canadiens lost 6-3 tonight, but as the coach said himself, the second period was probably their best frame this season. Unfortunately, finding a consistent effort through 60 minutes is not a new issue for this squad, and it will be something they'll need to address if they are to be "in the mix," as has been repeatedly said since the golf tournament.
Tomorrow, the Canadiens will enjoy a day off before returning to work on Wednesday, when they'll pull double duty. They'll have practice and meet the fans for the team's annual blood drive, which will take place at the Bell Centre, as always.
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