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Canadiens Highlights

Justin Barron Plays The Overtime Hero For the Canadiens Vs. Jets

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5 months ago

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Montreal Canadiens vs Winnipeg Jets

The Montreal Canadiens were in Manitoba on Monday night to face the surging Winnipeg Jets.

Jake Allen was given the start for the Canadiens, who were looking to build upon the momentum they created in their 5-3 win against the New York Islanders.

Despite the popular narrative, Allen has played well for the Habs this season, as evidenced by his goals above expected at 5v5. Coming into the game on Monday, Allen ranked 16th among all NHL goaltenders in that important statistical category.

The Canadiens allowed the Jets to erase a two-goal lead but won 3-2 in overtime thanks to Justin Barron’s sixth goal of the season.

Let’s dive into those highlights!

Slow Start For All

Sometimes teams play an exciting brand of hockey that does not result in very many goals.

That was not the case in the first period on Monday night.

Both the Habs and the Jets were slow out of the gates, with the majority of the period being played out in the neutral zone. The silver lining for the Canadiens was that they did a much better job defending the rush than they usually do when facing a team with a handful of potent offensive weapons.

As for their breakouts, the opportunities were few and far between, but thanks to players like Jayden Struble, the Canadiens did manage to escape their defensive zone with control of the puck on a few occasions.

The Canadiens held a 3-1 edge in high-danger chances as they entered the first intermission.

 

High(er) Event Hockey

Things picked up in the second period for the Canadiens.

Not only did they open the scoring for the fourth time in the last five games, but Josh Anderson also scored his third goal in the last two games.

As the adage goes, they don’t ask how, they just ask how many.

Anderson is enjoying a normalization in his production, and though the goal against the Jets was a little lucky, it’s only fair to say his shooting luck was nowhere to be found in the first part of the season.

Full marks to Mike Matheson on the play. Matheson may have struggled in the first two months of the season, but he’s back to playing excellent hockey for the Canadiens in December. He’s still producing a very healthy amount of offence, but his underlying numbers are also undergoing an important uptick.

Inconclusive Review

The Canadiens took a 2-0 lead midway through the second period, but not before a length review to determine if Anderson had made a hand pass before Christian Dvorak scored on the powerplay.

The call on the ice was a goal, which meant the review requested by the Jets had to be conclusive. As you can see from the replay, it was far from conclusive.

Trade Talk

Gabriel Vilardi scored in the dying minutes of the second period to cut the Canadiens lead to 2-1. David Savard was a little lackadaisical on the play, allowing Vilardi to stuff the puck home.

It wasn’t a great play by the Canadiens by any means, but we do have to discuss the fact that Vilardi almost has as many points as Pierre-Luc Dubois, and yet he has played 15 fewer games.

The Jets clearly won that trade, but the Habs could also be considered winners given that they refused to pony up the assets to ensure Dubois would land in Montreal.

Of course, Dubois’ slow start in Los Angeles doesn’t necessarily mean he’d be having a hard time scoring with the Habs, but let’s just say that goals are hard to come by for this lineup, therefore his chances would not be great.

Stonks!

The Jets ended up putting 12 high-danger shots on net at 5v5 on Monday night thanks to a dominant performance in the third period. Allen wasn’t perfect, but he played yet another solid game, especially when we consider he was rusty.

If any scouts were in attendance from teams looking to bolster their goaltending depth, they surely left the rink with an appreciation for what he could bring to the table.

It’s not fancy, but it’s efficient.

Of course, the Jets scored shortly after I tweeted about Allen’s solid game. He gave up a very big rebound, which led to Cole Perfetti’s game-tying goal.

That being said, the first shot is always the responsibility of the goaltender. The rebound is always the responsibility of the defending skaters. Leaving Perfetti uncovered that late in the game was a defensive sin by the Habs.

We should also point out that Jake Evans had an opportunity to get the puck out of the zone, just as he did before the first Jets goal, but failed to clear it when the pressure was on.

Evans has been playing reasonably well of late, and he didn’t have a bad game against the Jets, but he did struggle during a few shifts.

As Fate Would Have It

Mike Matheson was penalized in overtime after Adam Lowry crosschecked him a few times. Matheson closed his hand on the puck during the play. You’d think the trade-off would be a bad one for the Montreal Canadiens, but the player who replaced Matheson ended up scoring the game-winning goal.

It was Justin Barron’s sixth goal of the year.

 

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

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