Connect with us

Canadiens Postgame

Canadiens Offence Stalls In Frustrating Loss To Flames

Published

2 weeks ago

on

Montreal Canadiens Calgary Flames

The struggling Calgary Flames were at the Bell Centre on Tuesday night to face the middling Montreal Canadiens.

It was a hard-fought game, with both teams producing their fair share of high-danger chances.

Samuel Montembeault played well for the Canadiens, and Cole Caufield had several great opportunities to tie the game, but the Flames eventually emerged with a 2-1 win.

If you’re still looking to talk puck after reading this recap, don’t forget to join us for a fun post-game chat with a great Habs fan community. Here’s the link to join Game Over: Montreal – Calgary. I will be hosting tonight, alongside one of my colleagues from Calgary.

Alright, let’s dive right into the highlights.

First Period Assessment

The Habs haven’t made a habit of scoring early in games, but there has been a significant improvement in the last two games. Instead of immediately allowing their opponents to score during the first shift, they’ve done a much better job of pushing the play 200 feet away from their goaltender.

And just like on Sunday versus the Canucks, it was the third line that was doing most of the early pushing. It should also be noted that Kaiden Guhle, who is playing some of the best hockey of his career, is the reason the Canadiens spent the bulk of the first three minutes of the game in the Flames’ zone.

Habs Strike Back

The Habs allowed Nazem Kadri to open the scoring, but they responded less than twenty seconds later thanks to a smart player by Juraj Slafkovsky, who created time and space for his teammates, and Christian Dvorak, who delivered one of the nicest passes I’ve seen in a while.

He lifted the puck over the night with a perfect pass to Gustav Lindstrom, who had great timing on his decision to pinch.

It was Lindstrom’s first goal of the year, and it came with his family in attendance, always a nice touch.

Scary Sight

I don’t want to dwell on this topic too long, because it has somehow become politicized, and that’s one of the most nauseating and disgusting things that could happen when we’re discussing safety.

But this play in the second period which could have ended in disaster is a good reminder that the NHL can do much more to protect its employees, and that includes life-saving neck guards.

Those who are old enough will remember a certain member of the Montreal Canadiens bleeding out as he left the ice in Buffalo back in 2008. Luckily for Richard Zednik, a former medic who had served in the Vietnam War happened to work for the Sabres at the time.

His name is Jim Pizzutelli, and due to his grizzly past, he knew he had to immediately put pressure on the wound to prevent any more blood loss.

Pizzutelli is also the same person who saved Clint Malarchuk’s life almost 20 years earlier after yet another incident that could have easily resulted in disaster.

The next time an NHL player needs their war-like wounds attended to, there’s no guarantee a veteran will be standing by.

The NHL needs to mandate neck guards.

End of story.

Guhle was shaken up, but thankfully he did come back to the bench a few minutes later. And it was a good thing he did, as he immediately turned a high-danger scoring chance from the Flames into an easy save for Samuel Montembeault.

I know I’ve been singing Guhle’s praises a lot lately, but it’s hard to ignore just how impactful he’s been this season for the Canadiens.

His leadership is yet another feather in his cap.

Mister Anderson

No, Josh Anderson did not score, but he did have a few great chances, and he came incredibly close to getting off the schneid.

I understand some fans have had it with his lack of goals, but at the very least, he’s taking shots.

The goals will come.

I mean, the goals should come.

Eventually.

Nick Suzuki could have finished the game with a couple of points, but his excellent offensive awareness and great playmaking were unrewarded by his teammates.

The Montreal Canadiens will be back in action on Thursday as they host the Vegas Golden Knights at the Bell Centre. The puck drop is scheduled for 7 pm ET.

All Montreal Canadiens statistics are 5v5 unless otherwise noted. Via Natural Stat Trick.

Related Topics:
3 Comments
Subscribe
Notify of
guest

3 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Tyrone

I remember watching both the games where Malarchuk and Zednik got their necks slit by skates. It was a horrific sight. Due to my age at the time, the Malarchuk incident had a scarring affect on me. Seeing the look of horror in his eyes at that moment will stick with me forever. I thought I was going to watch a man die in front of my eyes that night. Those feelings get brought back every time there is an actual incident like with Zednik and others or a close call like with Guhle tonight. It was good to hear after the recent death of Adam Johnson that both Pezzetta and Gallagher started experimenting with neck guards. All it’s going to take is a handful of players to ignore the image factor, much like Jacques Plante did back in the day, to hopefully get others to follow what seems like the simplest common sense decision anyone could make. Player’s wives and families could easily pressure their spouses and fathers/sons/brothers into adopting a neck guard. It just seems like a complete no-brainer to me. The NHL should also grandfather in neck guards asap, and all junior leagues and NCAA divisions should make them mandatory right now.

1
Reply
morrisk

A couple of things regarding the “offense”…

I wouldn’t call it “stalled out” last night. The Habs are only averaging 2.75 goals per game so far this season. Not including the game last night, they averaged 2.5 gpg over the last 7 games. They can’t really score much as it already stands. They only have 8 guys on the team with 3 or more goals; 15 guys have 1 or 0 goals.

IMO, Anderson is done…done as a Hab, that is. For whatever reason, he just never cut it as a Hab. Either never reached that perceived potential – or maybe was overrated to begin with. He’s a glorified third liner at this point…how to get rid of that at a $5.5M cap hit will be virtually impossible. That’s why HE should have been traded a year or two ago – NOT Toffoli!

0
Reply
robin

Nick Suzuki is a great hockey player but he appears to be about 20 pounds overweight. Why is it that Sean Monahan is three inches taller than Nick but he weighs 10 pounds less than Nick?

0
Reply