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Canadiens Postgame

Canadiens Highlights: Bolduc Keeps Scoring Big Goals

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montreal canadiens zachary bolduc

The Montreal Canadiens faced the Chicago Blackhawks on Saturday night, looking to string together wins in a bid to create a little momentum in the early part of the season.

It was a tumultuous game, to say the least, but in the end the Canadiens emerged with a 3-2 win thanks to a goal from Kaiden Guhle in the dying moments of the third period.

Let’s dive into the highlights!

“Power” Play

It appeared the Canadiens were destined to spend half the night on the powerplay without having anything to show for it, as they wasted several opportunities on the man-advantage without any semblance of a quality scoring chance.

It took a broken play and some great hand-eye coordination from Cole Caufield to finally find the back of the net. The play was reviewed, but the referees determined it was not a high stick. Or maybe they just felt bad for the Habs, hard to tell.

82-Goal Pace

I still maintain the NHL robbed Zachary Bolduc of his third goal of the season by not correctly identifying his tip on the Alex Carrier point shot versus the Red Wings, but it doesn’t seem to have had an impact on Bolduc’s confidence.

The 22-year-old stoked the hype fires a little more, scoring his third goal in as many games with the Canadiens. This isn’t going to keep going forever, but there’s something to be said about his penchant for driving into high-danger scoring areas to look for rebounds. I’m guessing Martin St-Louis has already realized Bolduc is the type of player the Habs desperately needed to add to their middle six. An honest effort, every shift, that’s the Bolduc way.

With overtime looming, Kaiden Guhle took advantage of a scramble in front of the net to give the Canadiens a precious one-goal lead with just 15 seconds left in the third period. I erroneously attributed the goal to Slafkovsky at the time.

Additional Montreal Canadiens Notes And Statistics

  • Once in a while Patrik Laine makes the type of pass you would never expect from a veteran playing on the first powerplay unit. On the bright side, rookie Ivan Demidov’s back-check to nullify the breakaway was excellent.

  • This is going to make me sound like a boomer, and that’s fair, because I’m a few years away from scowling at children as I weirdly water my driveway on a hot summer day, but I was glad to see Bedard receive an unsportsmanlike penalty in the second period. He had been acting like a brat all night, including his complaining to the referees after he finally incited a response from Matheson for his punches in the scrum. It was the hockey equivalent of hitting your brother a few times, and then complaining to mom once the brother hits back. Not a good look for the youngster, but that’s fine, he’s a hell of a hockey player when he focuses on the puck.

  • Kaiden Guhle knew exactly what to expect after his (clean) hit on Frank Nazar. Louis Crevier may have ended up landing a few more punches once Guhle was off balance, but that first haymaker by Guhle was right on the money. Crevier’s knees bucked like your favourite belt (Full Disclosure: I stole that one from Twitter).

  • I don’t mean to sound more arrogant than usual, if that’s possible, but the early returns on the Bolduc-Mailloux trade are… not shocking in the least. On paper, it was clearly a huge win for the Habs. And on the ice, so far, it’s much of the same.
  • Yes, the Canadiens scored two powerplay goals in the first nine opportunities they were given, but few fans will argue that Montreal capitalized on their endless stream of man advantages. I also thought the Canadiens put a little extra mustard in play on a few of those calls, to ensure the Hawks would get penalized, but most of them were simply of the lazy variety by Chicago.
  • There was a little more than 30 minutes of 5v5 hockey on Saturday night. CATCH THE FEVER!
  • Montreal’s top line continues to put together jaw-dropping underlying numbers, even though the goals are yet to start flooding at 5v5. They rocked a 99.3% share of the expected goals versus Chicago (xGF%). That volcano is due to erupt any moment now.
  • The Blackhawks held an edge in shots at 5v5, but the Habs had a significant advantage in high-danger scoring chances. (11-3, 78.6%)

Canadiens vs. Blackhawks Heatmap (5v5 only)

It was a battle of quantity versus quality at 5v5. Given the Habs usually struggle to control the high-quality chances, this was a step in the right direction for Martin St-Louis’ team.

The Montreal Canadiens are back in action on Tuesday, facing the Seattle Kraken at the Bell Centre. The puck drop is scheduled for 7 pm ET.

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

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Dana

That was a terrific and entertaining game. Best game of the year for Laine, it’s a low bar admittedly, and Dobson skated as well as I’ve seen him. Few fluffy shots or he could been all over the scoresheet. The way Demidov swivels and pivots is unmatched, he was edge of the seat exciting tonight. He scrummed, bled, backchecked and hit and that was on top of the best hands on the ice. Hutson was a close second. I like that he is now jumping down low frequently. Guhle looked good. Top line was good and I thought Knight was tremendous as we had sustained pressure on most power plays but he made a lot of big saves. Blackhawks looked competitive, some good young talent on that roster. I was thrilled that we got so many power plays, puck possession with speed draws penalties.

Take a peek at our schedule, we could be around 10 games over .500 when December starts if we win the ones we should, including Tuesdays home opener versus Seattle.

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Tony

Three games. Three good efforts. Two wins. The team is playing with heart. No floaters. Some will say the PP tonight was bad. I say, they had their chances, and either failed in the finishing, or Knight stymied them. He definitely stole a handful of goals from the Habs. Bolduc is on fire. He impresses me as a player that knows how to play in the dirty area in front of the crease. And who’s willing to pay the price for playing there. And good on Guhle for standing up to Crevier (and getting the better of Crevier) after that awesome and perfectly clean and legal hit on Nazar. If this team continues to play this brand of hockey, stays healthy, and continues to gel, I can see them being in the top 3 of the Atlantic Division this season. Sorry Leaf fans.

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CH29

Guhle’s goal definitely went in off Slafkovsky’s stick uo and over Knight’s shoulder

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Marc Dumont

That’s what I saw when it happened live. By the end of the game, I’m ready to publish, so last-minute changes can be a little hectic.

Either way, Slafkovsky has looked pretty darn good to start the year, unlike the last few season starts.

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Tyrone

Now hopefully the folks that doubted my desire for us to acquire Knight when the rebuild began, will see what I was talking about. I wanted him to be a part of the Chiarot trade. And then when he became available later on, I wanted us to grab him again. The kid is gonna be really, really good.

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CH29

Slaf scored not Guhle

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