Connect with us

Canadiens Postgame

Canadiens Instant Recap: First Line, Xhekajs Stand Out

Published

1 month ago

on

By

montreal canadiens

The Montreal Canadiens hosted the Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday night, earning a 4-2 win at the Bell Centre.

The first line predictably led the charge, including goals from the team’s two top scorers last season, Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield, but it was the Xhekaj brothers who ended up stealing the show.

Let’s dive into the highlights!

Out Of The Gate

It took almost one full shift for the top line to find the back of the net, with Cole Caufield scoring on a nice one-timer via a Lane Hutson pass. It’s preseason, which means we have to take every good (and bad) play with a grain of salt, but it’s always encouraging to see the first line hit the ground running. As for Hutson, well, that’s just what he does, and given that he spent most of the summer practicing, I’m not surprised it took him less than a minute to register his name on the scoresheet.


The Canadiens doubled their lead shortly afterward, with David Reinbacher’s zone exit leading to great work by Tyler Thorpe as the F1, keeping control of the puck while being pestered by Nicolas Deslauriers, a legitimate NHL heavyweight. Florian Xhekaj took advantage of the strong effort by Thorpe to give the Habs a 2-0 lead, and while it’s true Ersson could have done better, full marks to Xhekaj for the quick release.

It’s Just A Flesh Wound

Juraj Slafkovsky was forced to return to the locker room for a few repairs after taking a skate to the face from former teammate Christian Dvorak.


The good news is that he was no worse for wear, as evidenced by the fact that he set up Nick Suzuki during his first shift back. As per tradition, Suzuki kept calm, despite having a couple of Flyers draped all over him.


Baptism By Fire

Even if the Habs have tried to give the impression there’s a competition between Jakub Dobes and Kaapo Kahkonen, it’s fairly safe to say Dobes will serve as the team’s backup, while Kahkonen will make his way to the NHL, to split time with Jacob Fowler. Beyond having a tough outing on Tuesday, Kahkonen is the team’s contingency plan should Dobes falter, or an injury occur.

We won’t crucify Kahkonen for allowing Anthony Richard to score on the breakaway moments after he replaced Fowler, but there’s no doubt he could have done better on the Owen Tippett powerplay goal, which made the score 3-2.

Montreal Canadiens Miscellaneous Notes:

  • With all due respect to Tobie Paquette-Bisson, it was a very odd to see No.79 at the Bell Centre, especially with Zachary Bolduc (No.76) sharing the ice.
  • Thorpe’s physical presence is impossible to ignore. He keeps things simple, but he always seems engaged in the play, a lot like F.Xhekaj.
  • Speaking of F.Xhekaj, he did not hesitate to fight Nicolas Deslauriers, and while his bravery will never be in doubt, I can’t imagine deciding to fight someone who throws right-handed bombs with ill intentions, such as Deslauriers. Heavy, heavy hands that one.
  • Another quick note on Xhekaj, which I love repeating. He set a Laval Rocket record with 24 goals as a rookie last season, and interestingly, he scored four powerplay goals, four shorthanded goals, and six game-winning goals. The man knows how to make his mark.
  • At times, David Reinbacher looks like a future top four defender. Other times, he makes very basic mistakes. His misread prior to the Anthony Richard goal was clear-cut, but I don’t criticize him for not being able to keep up with the former Hab, as he’s an incredibly fast skater. Regardless, I still feel strongly that Reinbacher needs another full season in the AHL, and that’s not because he had a rough game on Tuesday. He needs more time in the minors, full stop.
  • He’s yet to make a significant impact, but I like what I see from Vinzenz Rohrer. It’s obvious that he gained a lot of professional experience while playing in Zurich.
  • Every time I see both Xhekajs on the ice, I can’t help but think of this clip.
  • At the risk of upsetting the ‘every penalty against the Habs is unfair’ crew, the lack of discipline is an issue the team needs to solve before they can realistically expect to be a contender.
  • Not only did Florian score, Arber netted an empty-netter, making it an excellent story, especially since Mme. Xhekaj was in attendance.

Canadiens And Flyers Heatmap

Montreal Canadiens 4 Philadelphia Flyers 2

As we mentioned yesterday, the goal is to add a few more details to every instant recap, while also ensuring the highlights are available from the very moment the game is over.

I posted a heatmap on Monday, but as one member of the community noted, I didn’t really explain it. My apologies.

Heatmaps are a method of visualizing clusters of data. That data is represented by colours, with deeper colours signalling an uptick in quantity. The colours are explained in the legend below the diagram.

We’ll use Monday’s heatmap as an example, because the feature was not available at the time of publication.

As you can see, the Pittsburgh Penguins are on the left, while the Habs are on the right. The logos represent the team in the offensive zone. Since it’s a 5v5 heatmap, it will only show goals that were scored at 5v5, like Owen Beck’s goal in the third period, which is represented by a ‘G’.

The Habs did a decent job taking shots from a high-danger area, represented by the yellow near the crease, but that area would turn red if they managed to produce an overabundance of shots.

As is often the case, I turned to Natural Stat Trick for the information, one of my favourite stats websites.

The Montreal Canadiens are back in action on Thursday. They will face the Toronto Maple Leafs at the Bell Centre, with the puck drop scheduled for 7 pm ET.

If you have any further questions about statistics, please do not hesitate to make a note in the comments!

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

Related Topics:

MHN in your inbox

Enter your email address and get all of our articles sent directly to your inbox