The Montreal Canadiens will face elimination in Raleigh on Friday night after droping a 4-0 decision at home.
On Jakub Dobes’ 25th birthday, the Montreal Canadiens had Jaroslav Halak bring out the torch to light up the ice in one hand, and a stop sign bearing the birthday boy’s name on it. The reaction from the crowd was instantaneous: a huge roar that felt even louder than in all previous playoff games.
Still, it’s up to the players to perform on the ice and not to the crowd, who can do little more than cheer them on and scream “shoot!” Something they did often in Game 3 when their favourites could only muster 13 shots on net in 74 minutes. Ever since that 3-2 overtime defeat, the narrative has been about the Habs needing to generate more volume.
No Change, No Glory
In the previous two games, the Carolina Hurricanes had dominated puck possession, and it seemed a given that changes were needed. Not only did Martin St-Louis elect to go with the same lineup, but he also stuck to the same lines. The coach is not one to bend to popular opinion, but after he admitted that his team needed to generate a higher volume of shots, it was surprising to see no changes at the start of the game.
Even the strategy seemed unchanged as the Canadiens kept passing on shooting opportunities, still looking for the perfect play and failing to find it. Nick Suzuki found himself all alone in the high slot and decided to pass instead of shooting. Somehow, everyone on the team appears to have gotten trigger-shy at the same time.
Even in the defensive zone, the Canadiens weren’t reacting fast enough. Josh Anderson got the puck with no one around him, but by the time he decided to pass it, he had been dispossessed, which directly led to another Carolina goal. The first frame ended 3-0 for the visitors, and it was reflective of what was going on on the ice.
Too Little Too Late
The bench boss finally decided to make some changes at the start of the second frame, mixing up all of his lines, but with the Habs already down by three, it felt like it was a little too late. Alex Newhook joined Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield; Juraj Slafkovsky went back to the second line with Jake Evans and Ivan Demidov; Zach Bolduc joined Phillip Danault and Josh Anderson; while Alexandre Texier joined Joe Veleno and Kirby Dach.
Still, the Canadiens managed to get 10 shots on net in that frame, twice as many as they had in the first one. Montreal’s best scoring chance fell to Josh Anderson, but the power forward was unable to convert. Carolina added another 12 shots on Dobes’ net, and he stopped them all, although he was a bit lucky on the one that trickled through his pads.
The Canadiens didn’t help their cause by taking three penalties, and the frustration was obvious throughout Montreal’s ranks. They did manage to kill them all, which did reenergize the building a little. Talking about the result of his changes, St. Louis explained:
We’ll reassess, we’ll watch, but you know I felt like we got a jolt. I liked our second; we got to kill big penalties too. I thought that gave us momentum, unfortunately, we couldn’t execute.
Running On Empty
Down 3-0 at the start of the third frame, the Canadiens were completely dominated in the third and got their first shot of the period with 2:53 left in the game. By that time, the “Go Habs go!” chants had made way to the “Shoot the puck!” chants, something that didn’t go unnoticed by the players or by the coach. Asked how they can deal with the frustration of hearing those chants, the coach replied:
You’ve got to stand tall. The game is going to humble you. Whenever you get humbled, you stand tall. It’s not fun to hear that, but they’re not wrong.
St-Louis refused to blame fatigue for his team’s performance despite his side having played so many more games than Carolina. For him, there is such a thing as fatigue at the end of a shift, but it doesn’t go from one game to the other. The demeanour of his player on the bench told another tale, however, and the way Carolina was first on every puck and won every battle did, too.
The Canadiens will now travel to Carolina for Game 5 with the tall order of winning three straight games. Reminiscing about his playing career, St-Louis said he did it two or three times as a player, and that the only way to go about it is to take it one game at a time.
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