Canadiens Postgame
Canadiens Instant Recap: Hutson Not Enough To Prevent Loss
The Montreal Canadiens faced the Wild on Thursday night, looking to win their first game in Minnesota since 2011.
The Habs played much better in their own zone than they have in previous stretches, but it was not enough, seeing as their offence dried up at an inopportune time, and the Wild emerged with a 3-0 win.
If you’re interested in joining a fun discussion about all things Habs, don’t forget to join me for Game Over, via this link.
Grinding Start
It wasn’t the most exciting first period, but that was perfect for the Canadiens. As much as Monday afternoon’s game against the Buffalo Sabres was entertaining, keeping the Wild off the board in the first 20 minutes of the game is an encouraging step for Martin St-Louis’ team. Unfortunately, the Habs only managed two shots in the frame.
Full marks to Mike Matheson for breaking out physical play against one of the top forwards in the NHL, Kirill Kaprizov.
Mike Matheson just tossed Kaprizov off the puck pic.twitter.com/aF7bpZrHA5
— Matt Drake (@DrakeMT) November 15, 2024
Hutson Impact
I try to avoid praising every single exciting play made by rookie Lane Hutson, because frankly, those plays have become a common occurrence during the excellent start to his NHL career. And while there are some defensive woes that need to be addressed, including his positioning, it’s quite clear he’s the player who will drive the offence when no one else is capable.
As is tradition, we saw him create several chances out of thin air on Thursday night. It wasn’t enough to drag the Canadiens to a win, but it must be said the rookie is already one of the best players on the team.
It won’t be long until we remove part of that sentence and describe him as the team’s most-valuable player.
Man, Lane Hutson is cooking pic.twitter.com/uMd7DlaxuI
— Matt Drake (@DrakeMT) November 15, 2024
Zebra Impact
Sometimes referees will avoid making an obvious call because they don’t want to be the star of the show. They prefer the teams figure things out without their input, which is a noble, if not confusing, frustrating, and contrary to their responsibilities.
For example, when Ryan Hartman ran Juraj Slafkovsky into his own goalie, not only did the referees play the advantage and allow the Wild to keep pressing in the offensive zone, they ignored Filip Gustavsson’s actions, which were clearly worthy of a penalty.
The Wild scored on the very next play, which included a faceoff in the Canadiens’ end due to the zebras opting not to call a very obvious penalty. It doesn’t happen as often as some may suggest, but in this case, the poor decision by the referees led to the only goal of the game in the first 40 minutes, which certainly placed them in a starring role.
I’m not sure what Slafkovsky was supposed to do here.
Hartman pushed him in, and Gustavsson jumped on him.
No penalties for the Wild. pic.twitter.com/I5OJAcfY8C
— Marc Dumont (@MarcPDumont) November 15, 2024
Brass Tacks
The Canadiens did not generate much in terms of offence, but at the very least, both the first and second lines had a decent outing when it came to controlling the shots. On that note, the Habs managed just two high-danger scoring chances at 5v5, easily their lowest output of the season.
One of the major issues on Thursday was accuracy, or rather, a lack thereof. The two decent chances that come to mind came from Slafkovsky and Kirby Dach, but they were both shot squarely at Gustavsson’s chest, which made life very easy for a goaltender who tends to perform even when the chips are down.
SHOOT SOMEWHERE ELSE, GUYS pic.twitter.com/Uh6sHUZGaY
— Matt Drake (@DrakeMT) November 15, 2024
The Montreal Canadiens are back in action on Saturday. They will host the Columbus Blue Jackets 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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In this so-called rebuild, it has been taken for granted perhaps that St. Louis was the right choice for the job.
But did it ever occur that taking any one with no coaching experience and putting them into the hot seat could be a colossal failure?
But we don’t know because of it being such a young roster. Few question what a coach could do.
It was interesting when Georges mentioned about Gallant, I had thought the same thing out of the blue the day prior…. where is Gerard?
I hate to see a good guy lose a job, but the indication to me of a real lacking is the ridiculous penalties the team all too often takes, the contorted looks St. Louis gives and the fact that stupid penalty taking doesn’t get corrected.
If that showed signs of cleanup, it might be telling of a coach demanding discipline, rather than tolerating sloppiness.
Gerard did miracles with young players before he became a successful NHL coach.
Perhaps a new perspective would be in order, if not an outright change?
You make a valid point. Unfortunately, except for the name, Gerard is not French. Three strikes right off the bat. On the other hand, there is a French guy (with a French name) doing wonders with a bunch of kids in Laval. I wonder if Gorton and Hughes have noticed.
Weird that the dodgers manager doesn’t speak to Ohtani or the myriad of Japanese reporters in Japanese…
This requirement of a coach of the Montreal Canadiens being able to speak French as a nearly essential condition for employment is hard to rationalize. Hire the best person available and if they were to consider a new head coach, based on last year in Columbus, it’s not Vincent. Now while he deserves a lot of credit for the success of the Laval team, there are lots of other contributing factors, not just PV.
How many players on the team speak French, Matheson and Savard? The francophone community is well served on everything Canadiens, an anglophone head coach doesn’t change that. If two candidates are considered comparably excellent and one speaks French, then that’s a tie breaker. Gallant played his junior hockey in the Q, coached in the Q and also for us an assistant so he’s experienced at navigating the issue
Ps I love the language, studied it many years, watched many games in French etc but have limited abilities.
Agreed. I didn’t hear anyone complaining about Bowman back in the day. Winning took care of that. The problem is there will never be a team that wins like that again, so the whiners will always have something to complain about. Having said that, I have no issues with MSL as coach right now. If we brought in a strict Xs & Os guy right now, all the kids would start gripping their sticks a lot tighter and play scared. The last thing we need at this stage is another Therrien ripping a Subban to shreds daily. We’re just going to have to take our lumps and suffer through the inevitable growing pains that have to happen as the kids mature. We still have at minimum 2 more years of this after this one as kids like Demidov, Hage, Fowler, and whomever we grab this year work their way up. Managing the frustration we’re feeling is all about perspective. It’s tough, but with the right mindset, it’s a little easier to swallow.
Lot of tightly gripped sticks right now, or some very loosely as in not giving consistent effort As you well know, my expectations were for a more competitive season but the silver lining will be a high draft pick. Hopefully it’s well used.
Hope you’re wrong about the duration of this rebuild.
Bowman speaks decent French, however. But good point about the Canadiens and Quebec’s effective DEI inclusion, as long as it’s French.
About 98% of fans would rather enjoy the a coach who speaks “winning.”
Lately if feels like one of the goals is to avoid embarrassing losses and make sure that all losses are by a field goal or less.
Part of Team success is Team defence in the NHL. The 3 to 0 loss in Minnesota wasn’t pretty,but, at least they kept the Goals Against down and that gives you a better chance to win in the NHL. Now with that being said, I am still looking for a Luch Tuch call up and the creation of a Fourth Line, with Pezzetta and Condetta, that creates some grit and havoc for opponents. That may not be MSL’s style, but the Habs are just too easy to play against.
Dvorak and Armia are just simply taking up spaces in the Line up.
First goal was helped immeasurably by a poor pass by Dvorak (but that is nothing new). The second by the accidental high sticking penalties by Struble. So those goals were preventable.