Canadiens Instant Recap: Dobes, Struble, And Hutson Shine

The Montreal Canadiens dropped their first game of the preseason on Thursday night, a 2-1 loss to their Ontario rivals, the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Let’s dive into the highlights!

Determined Dvorak

Every training camp leads to a chorus from of complaints about various aging veterans, as evidenced by the calls to send Christian Dvorak to the AHL so that Oliver Kapanen can be given a full-time NHL job. And while it’s true Kapanen has looked quite good since the start of camp, we also must remember Dvorak is just 28 years old. It just feels like he’s been in the lineup for decades because he has featured on some very weak Canadiens squads that made time move quite slowly.

At this point, we shouldn’t expect a dominant season from No.28, and there’s no doubt he will eventually have to make way for the youth movement, but on Thursday, Dvorak reminded everyone he’s not completely down and out, yet. Full marks to Alex Barre-Boulet for setting up the goal-scoring play after capitalizing on an errant pass by former Canadiens captain Max Pacioretty.

comme dans du beurre 🧈

smooth as butter

MTL 1, TOR 1#GoHabsGo pic.twitter.com/z5jMcsh1zl

— Canadiens Montréal (@CanadiensMTL) September 27, 2024

Carpe Dobes

The Leafs controlled the first two periods, and if we’re being honest, it wasn’t a particularly close fight. After 40 minutes, the Canadiens had managed to control a little over 30 percent of the shots, and were losing the high-danger scoring chance battle by a wide margin.

Jakub Dobes seized his chance, stopping almost a half dozen breakaway and odd-man rushes to keep the Habs in the game when they needed it most. Unfortunately, the skaters didn’t fulfill their part of the bargain, as the Habs failed to provide the type of run support necessary to give Dobes a legitimate chance to emerge with a win.

D🚫BY#GoHabsGo pic.twitter.com/xIyL9gkiV6

— Canadiens Montréal (@CanadiensMTL) September 27, 2024

Own Worst Enemy

You never want to see a player go down with an injury at any time in the season, especially not in a relatively meaningless preseason game. It remains to be seen if William Nylander will have to miss any further time, but the Leafs did opt to remove him from the game after a weird play involving Nick Robertson resulted in a loss of balance, and consequently, a possible head injury.

the full sequence between Robertson and Nylander pic.twitter.com/DF5VIBSYXs

— Omar (@TicTacTOmar) September 26, 2024

Defensive Decisions

For what it’s worth, Lane Hutson led all defencemen in expected goal share, but you’d be hard-pressed to state it was one of the best games of his career. That’s not to say he played poorly, as he hit the crossbar on two occasions and was usually the best player on the ice on any given shift. It just wasn’t a classic Hutsonian performance from a dominance perspective, and that’s completely fine. If we’re being fair, we could argue that’s more of a matter of heightened expectations than anything else, and that’s out of Hutson’s control.

Jayden Struble, on the other hand, didn’t have the best underlying numbers, but the eye test suggests he was one of the few Canadiens defencemen playing with confidence. Struble feels like the odd-man out when evaluating the defensive group heading into the 2024-25 season, but we have to remember he’s a year older, and a year wiser. That also means his body is more used to the intensity of a complete professional hockey season, unlike his rookie campaign that saw him hit a wall midway through the year. As for Adam Engstrom, the smooth-skating defensive prospect was reminded there’s a lot less time to think in the NHL compared to other leagues.

*Yoink* pic.twitter.com/CvCHakuV3n

— Toronto Maple Leafs (@MapleLeafs) September 27, 2024

The Montreal Canadiens are back in action on Saturday. They will face the Maple Leafs at the Bell Centre. The puck drop is scheduled for 7 pm ET.

All Montreal Canadiens statistics via Natural Stat Trick.