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Canadiens Postgame

Canadiens Recap: Suzuki Scores Twice In Reality Check Game

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1 year ago

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Montreal Canadiens Nick Suzuki via screenshot

The Montreal Canadiens hosted the New York Rangers on Tuesday at the Bell Centre, a rather difficult challenge for Martin St-Louis’ troops, to say the least. New York has a great special teams, a fantastic goalie, and star players in the mix, while the Habs are attempting to climb out of the NHL’s basement for the first time in a few years.

Predictably, things went terrible wrong for the Canadiens in the early parts of the game, with the Rangers quickly establishing a 4-0 lead. The Habs fought back thanks to a pair of goals from their captain, but it was all for naught, as New York emerged with a 7-2 win.

There was some unfortunate news from a health perspective, as Justin Barron had to leave the game when Jacob Trouba landed the 238th headshot of his career.

If you’re interested in discussing the Canadiens once you’re done reading the instant recap, or if you just want to vent a little, make sure to join me as I host Game Over. Here’s the link to join an excellent community of Habs fans.

There’s a lot to discuss, so let’s dive into it!

Monty Gets The Hook

We don’t need to sugarcoat the fact that goaltender Samuel Montembeault had a difficult game. The Canadiens were out chanced significantly when evaluating high-danger opportunities, but that doesn’t erase Montembeault’s poor performance.

On the flip side of the coin, given how often Montembeault kept his team in games over the last few seasons, we can certainly afford to not overreact about one bad goaltending period. Statistically speaking, Montembeault has been this team’s MVP for two years running.


It was also a learning opportunity for several of the team’s young defenders. Lane Hutson’s giveaway was matched by Jayden Struble and Logan Mailloux’s decision to not play the whistle, which allowed the Rangers to establish their early multiple-goal lead. This was to be expected coming int the season. These young defencemen are learning on the fly, and that’s always a difficult proposal. We should also point out that Montembeault did signal for an icing, which likely helped induce them to error, and it probably should have been an icing call, but every hockey player knows you have to play until you hear a whistle.

Nick Suzuki Comes Through

While much has been made about Nick Suzuki’s slow start, we can also appreciate that he was sitting at close to a point per game heading into Tuesday’s matchup. Yes, it’s true the top line has struggled from a possession standpoint, but Suzuki’s ‘slow start’ would be excellent for the vast majority of NHL players.

The biggest concern was his lack of goals through six games, but Suzuki rectified that issue by scoring the Canadiens’ first two goals as he desperately attempted to drag his team back into the contest.

The first goal was set up by Josh Anderson, who is playing excellent hockey. Okay, relatively speaking, he’s done well, but it has been lost in all the frustration that has come since the start of the year.


The second was all Suzuki. He identified open ice on the powerplay and exploited the defensive setup to drive the net. The very nice goal put the Habs back in the contest for a brief moment, but the Rangers re-established their three-goal lead shortly thereafter.

Obviously, it would be a better situation if the Habs did not have to deal with an early four-goal deficit, but full marks to the captain for showing a sign of life when his team needed it most.

Montreal Canadiens Looking For Solutions

The incredibly young defensive core needs more experience, and there’s only one way to go about that. I would immediately put Arber Xhekaj back into the lineup, because there was no legitimate reason to remove him from the defensive group to begin with. It’s not just a matter of having the biggest guy on the ice. Xhekaj’s underlying numbers are very solid. He’s much more useful to the Canadiens when he’s on the ice, because as it stands, he leads all defencemen in shot share this season.

I’d also immediately recall Joshua Roy. Yes, he had a poor training camp, but if we’re being honest, training camp was poor, full stop. There was little to no value in the data we got from those preseason games, because there was little to no 5v5 play.

What do know for sure, is that Roy was one of the team’s best forwards last year, and that’s saying a lot when we consider he did not have much professional experience when he was originally promoted to the NHL.

It also may be time to give Emil Heineman a promotion. He hasn’t dominated, but his solid play, not to mention his lightning-quick release, may be a boon for a team that lacks offensive firepower.

And finally, at the risk of overindulging in arrogance, I’d suggest everyone needs to re-adjust their expectations a little. This is the youngest team in the league, and it shows. Rebuilds take no less than three years at a minimum, and often times much longer.

It is a frustrating situation for fans, especially those who spend their hard-earned money on season tickets, but it was also quite easy to anticipate. The Habs do not have the personnel, experience, or structure needed to compete in the NHL. At least not yet.

The Montreal Canadiens are back in action on Saturday. They will face the St. Louis Blues at the Bell Centre, with the puck drop scheduled for 7 pm ET.  All Montreal Canadiens statistics are 5v5 unless otherwise noted, via Natural Stat Trick.

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