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Canadiens Analysis

Canadiens Instant Recap: Caufield And Suzuki Score, Habs Lose

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7 months ago

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Montreal Canadiens vs Capitals

The Montreal Canadiens were in Washington on Thursday to face Alexander Ovechkin and the Capitals.

The Habs were outclassed significantly, as evidenced by the high-danger scoring chances at 5v5, which ended 16-4 in Washington’s favour. With that in mind, the Canadiens dropped yet another game, this time 6-3.

If you’re interested in discussing the game, or anything related to the Habs, make sure to join my post-game discussion by following this link. We have an incredibly supportive community of Habs fans that will welcome everyone into the fold.

There’s a lot to cover, so let’s get to the highlights!

Slow Start

The first period not exciting, but that’s an improvement when we consider the last game, which saw the Seattle Kraken head to the first intermission with a 4-1 lead. The high-danger shots were 3-0 in favour of the Capitals, and while that’s far from ideal, allowing opponents to generate just three high-danger chances at 5v5 should be considered a step forward for this team.

Tom Wilson ended up opening the scoring early in the second period, with a very nice deflection on the powerplay that was set up by Alexander Ovechkin. Shortly thereafter, it appeared the Capitals had taken a 2-0 lead, but the shorthanded goal was denied upon further review.

 

Same Sources

This will certainly shock Canadiens fans: Cole Caufield scored another goal, his 10th of the season. This means he’s back to being tied for the league lead, with New Jersey Devils captain Nico Hischier. If we’re being fair, we can suggest Charlie Lindgren should have made the save, but it’s worth noting Caufield had brutal shooting luck last year.

Yin, yang.


Speaking of players who have done a good job producing offence this season, Brendan Gallagher scored the team’s second goal of the game by driving to a high-danger area, a strategy that is hopefully emulated by more players in the lineup. Lane Hutson came close to scoring his first of the season, and it will be fun once he does find the back of the net, but for now, fans can be excited that the team finally has a player who has the ability to drive offence every shift.

Captain’s Call

The Capitals quickly tied the game following Gallagher’s goal, a recurring theme for the Canadiens in the last three years. They even went ahead by one goal when Jakub Vrana was abandoned in a high-danger scoring area,  another recurring theme.

It was one of the usual suspects that brought the Canadiens back into the game, as Nick Suzuki scored his fourth goal of the year, which means he’s up to 12 points in the first 11 games of the year. Suzuki is often criticized by out-of-town sources that don’t watch many hockey games, but even when he’s not scoring, which is rare, he does so much good for the team, both in the defensive and offensive zone. There are a lot of issues on this team, but Suzuki is clearly not one of them.

Lost Leaders

The Capitals eventually took a 5-3 lead thanks to a pair of goals that took place in less than a minute. To make matters worse, it was the second time the Canadiens allowed the Capitals to score two goals within 60 seconds.

This is a rebuilding team, and that means there will be more losses than wins, but it’s quite disheartening to watch the Habs fall apart almost every night.

As much as I’d like to pin the poor play entirely on the players, some of the blame must be put on Martin St-Louis’ shoulders. A coach prepares teams to play a full 60 minutes, at least that’s supposed to be the plan. The Canadiens rarely, if ever, play a full 60 minutes of above-average hockey. The players have their role to play, but this is a symptom of a team that has a very hard time adjusting to the man-to-man defensive strategy, and St-Louis must recognize things are not working. It’s definitely part of his mandate as the head coach of the Canadiens.

Without Arber Xhekaj in the lineup, the Capitals dominated the physical battle, though that’s to be expected. It did, however, lead to Josh Anderson fighting Tom Wilson, and who doesn’t love seeing Wilson eat a few jabs?

The Montreal Canadiens will be back in action on Saturday. They will face Sidney Crosby and the Penguins in Pittsburgh, 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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