It was a good start to the season for the Montreal Canadiens, taking on their divisional rival, the Toronto Maple Leafs, at least until the last few minutes of the game. Martin St-Louis repeatedly stated during the preseason that he wanted his team to be ready from the start this season. The bench boss didn’t want another abysmal start like the team had last season, and while the sample is small, so far, so good.

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Faster Is Better

One thing that stood out tonight for the Canadiens was the fact that the team is significantly faster. The Habs let Joel Armia and Christian Dvorak walk in free agency and added Zack Bolduc and Ivan Demidov to the roster compared to the team that started the last season, and it showed.

It wasn’t just the new guys; instead, the leaner version of Arber Xhekaj also moves faster on the ice. Alex Newhook’s speed is a constant threat on the penalty kill, and Oliver Kapanen really appears to have taken a step forward compared to last season. When he scored the Canadiens’ first goal of the game while down a man, the young Finn showed his coach that he was right to believe he could be an effective penalty killer, something that was a significant factor in St-Louis’ decision to keep the youngster up over the likes of Owen Beck, Florian Xhekaj, and Samuel Blais.

Power Play Needs More Reps

On paper, the Canadiens have two very good power play units, but the game is played on the ice, not on paper. One rule remains true in hockey: if you do not shoot, you won’t score. While spectacular passing is great to see, it won’t give you a lead if you don’t test the goaltender.

Through the first 40 minutes, the Canadiens had two power plays, but neither resulted in a shot, making it impossible to score. The Leafs were perfect discipline-wise in the final frame, meaning the Habs didn’t have another opportunity.

While it’s understandable that the coach wants to have two balanced power play units, having Demidov on the first unit would undoubtedly be helpful. Pairing Lane Hutson and the young Russian together creates a more mobile and unpredictable man-advantage unit, which increases the likelihood of creating good shooting lanes.

Furthermore, even with the best of intentions, more often than not, the first unit will get most of the ice time. If they are dominating possession in the offensive zone, they won’t come out to change, meaning that your most gifted playmaker won’t see much time. Tonight, Bolduc saw over three minutes on ice time on the power play, while Demidov got 55 seconds and Patrik Laine 46.

Striking The Right Balance

St-Louis has been clear that he wants his men to defend as a unit of five, meaning that the forwards need to start defending right from the moment they lose possession of the puck, and we’ve seen that tonight. We’ve seen the forwards eager to get the puck back after losing it, and maybe just a little bit too much.

The Habs took only two penalties during the game, and both occurred in the offensive zone. Laine and Demidov both received penalties for hooking as they attempted to dispossess an opponent. Being keen on the forecheck is good, but you’ve got to avoid crossing the line, which they couldn’t do tonight.

In the end, it wasn’t costly as the penalty kill was able to stifle the Leafs’ power play, but it could have been. Still, it was interesting to see Laine try hard on the forecheck, and while it didn’t go his way on that sequence, it did at other times. Whichever way you look at it, the big Finn rolls up his sleeves when he’s playing with Jake Evans and Josh Anderson.

The scoreline doesn’t really reflect Wednesday night’s game, with Auston Matthews and William Nylander both getting empty-net goals in the last minutes of the game, but it remains a loss for the Canadiens even if they did play well. On top of Kapanen and Bolduc scoring, it’s also worth noting that Juraj Slafkovsky took six shots on net on the night and was an intense physical presence all game long. The Slovak has been accustomed to slow starts, and tonight, he looked like that wasn’t going to be the case this time around.

The Canadiens won’t have time to overanalyse this defeat as they head straight for Detroit, where they’ll play the second part of this season’s opening back-to-back.

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