Canadiens: Thompson Stood Tall And Got A Big Win
The Montreal Canadiens welcomed the Washington Capitals at the Bell Center and hoped to win a third game in a row for the first time this season.
It took some time for this one to get going, the game had an uneven rhythm and lots of errant passes. The Washington Capitals had played yesterday and it showed, they looked tired and were beaten to the puck by the Montreal Canadiens more often than not, in the first 20 minutes.
The game featured two of the goaltenders who were in the running to play for Team Canada at the 4 Nations Face-off; Samuel Montembeault on one side and Logan Thompson on the other side. I don't know if the Canadiens' goaltender read John Shannon's comments about his selection being political, but if he did, it must only have motivated him further. As for Thompson, the snub was motivation enough, he played a great game.
Just a minute after the halfway mark of the first, Alex Newhook scored his sixth goal of the season thanks to a zone exit initiated by Lane Hutson and an assist from Cole Caufield. That assist was a point in a sixth consecutive game for the Canadiens rookie, tying a Chris Chelios record which was days away from being 40 years old. Although Glen Harmon had set it first, all the way back in 1943.
Less than five minutes later, Caufield scored his 17th of the season, with an assist from captain Nick Suzuki. The sniper is the top American goal scorer so far this season, but it wasn't enough for Team USA to name him to its roster, there's something poetic about seeing him score against the nation's capital.
At the end of the first frame, Montreal lead 2-0 and 10-9 shots wise. The visitor came out with much more energy in the second, it almost looked like they had been told Montreal wouldn't just hand them the two points. Just 33 seconds into the middle frame, after Washington won a battle for the puck behind Montembeault's net, John Carlson fed Pierre-Luc Dubois who fired a perfect shot past the goaltender to bring the Caps back to within one.
It must have felt good for the Quebecer who was booed by some fans tonight. Was it because the Los Angeles Kings offered a better package than the Canadiens did to the Winnipeg Jets in the Dubois derby? It seems to me, that was out of the players hands, and even if he wasn't considering how things went for him since he signed that contract with the Kings, fans should be happy to have dodged a bullet.
There was no more goals in the second stanza, not that both teams didn't try, but the goaltenders stood tall. Thompson was very impressive when he picked Newhook's pocket as the winger was alone on the doorstep with a perfect harpooning move, but the best was to come for the Washington netminder.
The Canadiens have had issues separating themselves from the other team when they have the lead and tonight was no exception, in the third period, Montreal had four breakaways, but could not capitalize on any of them. Martin St-Louis lamented the lack of finish, but is not ready for a breakaway clinic tomorrow. He did mention the fact that Thompson catches left as something that has an influence on a player on a breakaway, the shooter needs to think differently and it doesn't happen all that often.
While Montreal struggled to capitalize, Washington did not. When they had an opportunity, they took it. David Savard turned the puck over deep in his own zone and in a flash, it went from Aliaksei Protas, to Dubois, to Wilson who put it right upstairs and the Caps got their first lead of the game.
Hutson then took a holding penalty and Dylan Strome found himself alone in the slot, picked his spot and didn't miss, 4-2 Washington. The Habs did pull their goaltender, but it was too little too late. The Capitals won a ninth consecutive game on the road and the Canadiens failed once again to win a third game in a row.
I feel I must mention Josh Anderson's effort tonight, the power forward created a lot of odd-man rushes and even if no goals came of it, he was a constant pain for the Capitals to deal with.
Even though Patrik Laine couldn't get a goal in a third game in a row, he was still pretty active taking four shots on goal (another two were blocked and one was missed). his linemate Kirby Dach and Juraj Slafkovsky each had two shots on goals as well, so the line was producing opportunities, but I still feel like Dach is, at times holding back.
There seems to be a fear of being hit that wasn't there prior to his knee injury and it's understandable, but one has to wonder when, or even if, it will go away. It was another tough outing for him in the faceoff department, he only won two of the six he took for a 33% success rate. The other centers took 13 (Suzuki), 11 (Christian Dvorak) and 14 (Jake Evans) draws each, clearly St-Louis tries to give Dach as little faceoffs as possible.
Tomorrow, the Canadiens will be practicing at 10:00 AM at the Bell Center and they'll be back in action on Monday night when they welcome the Anaheim Ducks, a team that's just above them in the standings and who's GM Pat Verbeek took in the game tonight from the Bell Centre press gallery with player Ryan Strome.
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