Montreal Canadiens’ coach Martin St-Louis had some new lines on Tuesday night, he had changed his bottom nine by promoting Josh Anderson to the second line, demoting Patrik Laine to the third and he inserted Owen Beck in the lineup to replace Michael Pezzetta.
Same Mistakes Over and Over
While the Canadiens’ losing streak is not one player’s fault, the play of Juraj Slafkovsky of late has been a contributing factor. During the Habs fantastic sequence in from the end of December, he had been making better decisions on the ice, but since the skid started, he’s been guilty of attempting cross-ice passes that fail more often than not, and the first frame was no exception.
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On top on turning the puck over on questionable decisions, Slafkovsky was also in the penalty box when Macklin Celebrini gave the San Jose Sharks the lead in the first frame. The young Slovak wasn’t in the box for a “good” penalty either, it was a slashing call and a lack of discipline. These are two aspects of the game that he will definitely have to improve.
An Extra Spring In His Step
While Anderson has been missing numerous practice of late to receive treatments, he looked like he had an extra spring in his step today. He only spent three minutes and 19 seconds on the ice in the first frame, but he was the Canadiens’ most visible player.
The speed he brought to the second line allowed Montreal to create some good scoring opportunities and the way he anticipated his teammates’ plays was keep in the pressure they were able to put on the Sharks.
The Future Is Bright
Whether you believe Celebrini or Lane Hutson should win the Calder Trophy, this game gave us a great opportunity to see how the two former Boston University teammates measured up against one another and while Celebrini won the duel with two points to Hutson’s one, both looked like established NHLers.
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Both showed some tremendous skills tonight and the race to the Calder is far from over, whichever team you cheer for. At this stage it’s hard to say which of the two has got the inside track. Hutson is ahead in points (he has 40, one more than the Sharks’ rookie), but he has played 10 games more than Celebrini. The fact he’s a defenseman and not a forward should get him some extra votes however. Last night, the Canadiens’ defenseman became the fastest rookie defenseman to get to 40 points after Chris Chelios.
In the end, the Canadiens managed to sign a 4-3 win powered by their power play (Cole Caufield scored his first man advantage goal since November 27th and Brendan Gallagher scored one for the second power play unit) and their penalty kill. Joel Armia scored the game winner while down a man (it was a second shorthanded goal for the Finn in as many games and with 12 shorties, he joins Floyd Curry and Vincent Damphousse in seventh place in team history).
Samuel Montembeault also made a few big saves that gave his team a chance to win, he shut the door on Celebrini a few times from in close.
Montreal will now take on the Los Angeles Kings in the second game of their back-to-back. While it hasn’t been confirmed yet, expect to see Jakub Dobes between the post for the Habs in LA.
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