10 Thoughts: Weekend Sweep as Habs Beat Flyers

After a much-needed win and effort against the Blues on Saturday, the Habs had little time to bask in the glory of their win as they were right back in action on Sunday against the Philadelphia Flyers at the Wells Fargo Arena. This game featured two very young teams and that showed at times throughout the contest. In the end, the Canadiens were the better team for most of the night and they managed to get out of a relatively strong road game with a 4-3 win, thus sweeping a weekend of games and getting themselves… back in the mix.

Montreal’s Lines

Cole Caufield — Nick Suzuki — Kirby Dach
Alex Newhook – Oliver Kapanen – Joel Armia
Brendan Gallagher – Jake Evans — Josh Anderson
Michael Pezzetta — Christian Dvorak — Emil Heineman 

Mike Matheson – Logan Mailloux
Lane Hutson — David Savard
Arber Xhekaj – Jayden Struble 

Cayden Primeau 

10 Thoughts

1) The pace and feel of the first period displayed two teams who are young and looking to find themselves at the NHL level. Scoring chances were easy on both sides of the puck as defensive coverage was less than thorough. The Habs got the better of the chances, but considering the goaltenders on both sides (Primeau and Aleksei Kolosov making his NHL debut), one would think that both coaches would like to avoid this type of period. 

2) After a close call on what could have been a dangerous hit by Sean Couturier on Dach (it was a bad play by Dach), Xhekaj paid a visit to Couturier. Couturier dropped the gloves first (which is a credit to Xhekaj on handling things appropriately), and then Nick Seeler decided to jump in as the third man to take on the fight for his captain. No fight really happened, but the result was no penalty to either Couturier or Seeler and an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty to Xhekaj. Completely ridiculous in my opinion. It evened out in the second period when Gallagher and Matvei Michkov had a jousting match that ended with only Michkov in the box, undoubtedly a makeup call. 

3) The scoring in the period was a highlight of what one good bounce can do for one’s game. Dach won two puck battles on the shift and then he also won his race to the front of the net. He was rewarded with a bounce off himself before the puck found Suzuki who put the game’s first goal on the board. Near the end of the period, Travis Sanheim was given the middle of the blue line through confused coverage by Gallagher and Anderson. His point shot bounced off Evans to fool Primeau. Shots in the period were 11-9 in favour of the Habs. 

4) Both teams were clearly given memos to tighten up defensively as the second period started with a whopping three shots combined in the first five minutes. Despite this tightening in play, the Habs got their lead back when Anderson was strong on the cycle in the offensive zone until he sent the puck back to the point. Mailloux got a shot off that deflected off Gallagher to beat Kolosov. 

5) Anderson had a particularly strong second period as he used his speed to be a handful on the forecheck and created all kinds of havoc in the offensive zone. On one such occasion just past the midway point of the game, he drew a high stick which sent the Canadiens to the power play. The man advantage had multiple chances as Suzuki and Dach were finding Caufield with ease for shots all over the zone. After all those great chances, it was a broken play where Caufield sent a shot on net and got one to sneak through Kolosov to extend the lead. 

6) Montreal extended their lead with a funny play. Gallagher got the puck at the blue line and he saw Evans get open on the weak side of the net. Gallagher completed a slap-pass that he completely missed thanks to his stick shattering on the play. The slow-motion pass surprised everyone as no one touched it. It got to Evans and even Kolosov appeared surprised as he was not over in position, somehow. Evans one-timed it home on a strange goal. 

7) Kolosov, who hadn’t had the best debut in NHL history, made his best save of the night to kick off the third period when Hutson sold everyone on a shot before sliding it to Caufield who was robbed by the young Philadelphia netminder. 

8) The majority of the third period was very low-event. While this is often seen as a negative for the Habs, it really wasn’t in this case. They were not stuck in their defensive zone which would be usual with such a lead. Instead, it was mostly a neutral zone period which allowed the Canadiens to breathe easy on way to the win… almost. 

9) Sanheim would make it 4-2 with 2:12 to play after Xhekaj tried to get cute near the offensive blue line. On the next shift, Kolosov was pulled before Hutson and Savard got turned around and Konecny made it 4-3 with 1:43 to play. 

10) Montreal hung on to win the game, but the last 1:43 really displayed some weak play as they failed to clear the zone at least three times. The final shots were 26-24 for the Flyers, though I would argue the Habs were the better team for most of the night. 

HabsWorld Habs 3 Stars

1st Star – Kirby Dach 

I mentioned this above but it’s incredible what a bit of confidence can create in a player. There is no way someone comparing tonight’s game to any game pre-Saturday would believe that 77 on the Habs was the same player. He’s skating wider, finding the open ice, and making the smarter plays instead of forcing impossible plays. There was a play at the end of the first that displayed it perfectly. Dach had an offensive zone entry. He had numbers as Suzuki and Caufield were with him, but he didn’t have the angle. Three games ago, he would have tried to force a pass through, missed, and the Habs would have spent the shift in their zone. Tonight, it was an easy dump-in to an area where Caufield wins a race and while absolutely nothing happened on the shift, the Habs spent in the offensive zone and looked great. 

Stats: 1 assist, even, 1 shot, 2 hits, 16:20  

2nd Star – Nick Suzuki 

The cerebral captain took a few games to get going but is now in full flight as he’ll end the month with great stats despite the first few games. Suzuki was efficient on this night as he found his linemates with ease and got into the tough areas on the ice as shown by the goal he scored. 

Stats: 1 goal, 1 assist, even, 5 shots, 18:57 T.O.I. 

3rd Star – Josh Anderson 

Anderson has been an easy target over the last few years but boy is he playing great hockey in this month of October. Finding two north-south line mates is certainly a plus for him, but it had been a while since this fan base last saw him use his speed and physicality to create this much chaos on the forecheck. Some will point to the contract and continue to complain which I think is a shame considering the hockey he’s been playing of late. 

Stats: 1 assist, -1, 3 hits, 15:33 T.O.I.