NHL: Montreal Canadiens at Seattle Kraken
Credit: Steven Bisig-Imagn Images

The Montreal Canadiens were in Seattle on Tuesday night, facing the Kraken as they attempted to finish their West Coast trip on a high note.

It seemed that the Canadiens had wasted an excellent start to the game, as the Kraken forced overtime, but the usual suspect, Cole Caufield, secured an exciting 4-3 overtime win.

Let’s dive into the highlights!

Goes Through Suzuki

The Habs set the tone early, thanks to yet another play that featured captain Nick Suzuki registering his name on the scoresheet.

Suzuki extended his point streak to 10 games, a career high, via this nice assist on Cole Caufield’s eighth goal of the year.

Habs fans are quite used to seeing those two connect for important goals, but at the risk of over analyzing the goal, we have to give credit to a few other players before we move on.

The first being Noah Dobson, who chose to pinch at the perfect time, winning his puck battle prior to providing Suzuki with a great assist. There’s absolutely no doubt about it, Dobson has been a godsend for the Canadiens this season.

The second is Juraj Slafkovsky, who quickly reacted to the pinch by covering for Dobson.

This play won’t long be remembered in Slafkovsky’s case, especially since he didn’t register an assist, but it was a heads-up play by a young player, using defensive prowess to allow a defenceman to show off his offensive instincts. That’s sure to put a smile on St-Louis’ face.

Power In The Play

The Habs doubled their lead shortly afterwards, and for once, Suzuki was not involved in the scoring play.

Okay, full disclosure, he absolutely was part of the play, but it’s gotten to the point where I’m not sure if the Canadiens are allowed to score if Suzuki isn’t in the mix.

It’s a good problem to have, for now.

Full marks to Lane Hutson, Suzuki, Cole Caufield, and Slafkovsky for the play, as it showed fantastic puck movement on the powerplay, yet another encouraging improvement in what was once an area of weakness for the Canadiens.

Prior to the goal, I arrogantly suggested it was Demidov’s time to shine, and that he alone would be the reason the Canadiens were going to end up scoring.

MUST READ: Montreal Canadiens Analysis – Demidov Powerplay Impact

Of course, he was the only player who was not directly involved in the goal.

But jokes aside, he was involved, to a certain extent.

The Kraken were clearly paying close attention to Demidov on the half wall, which gave the rest of his teammates an abundance of open ice. And Slafkovsky would not be in the slot if Demidov hadn’t taken his half-wall position on the first powerplay unit.

On that note, it was Slafkovsky’s fifth goal of the year, which is the epitome of encouraging when we remember it took him until January last season to reach the five-goal mark. We’ll see if he can maintain his scoring pace, but for the time being he’s on pace for a 30+ goal season.

The Canadiens would go on to extend their lead to 3-0, a rather important insurance marker as they essentially stopped trying at that point in the game. Alex Newhook, who has been rejuvenated by his usage alongside Demidov and Oliver Kapanen, took advantage of a good bounce to score his fourth of the year.

Extra Time

Seeing as the Kraken took advantage of Montreal’s sleepy third period, the game required overtime.

Any game that requires extra frames, also requires a goal from Caufield, who not only won the game, but also set a Canadiens record in the process with his 11th career overtime marker.

Additional Montreal Canadiens Notes And Statistics

  • Demidov passes too often, and that could be an issue if he was a mediocre playmaker, but he’s much better than that. He’s an elite passer. I know some of the plays are easy to criticize in hindsight, but I’d advise against looking for nits to pick in his case. He’s doing very well, all things considered.
  • Dobes continues to make life very easy for his team. This time around, his team helped out, as the Canadiens did a great job limiting the high-quality chances at 5v5, but it’s impossible to deny Dobes is playing with the utmost confidence, and that’s spilling over to the rest of the lineup.
  • Brandon Montour is always a very good player, but he turns into Bobby freaking Orr every time he faces the Habs.
  • The Canadiens decided to take the third period off, and though it didn’t completely backfire, you could say they were playing with… less confidence than they were previously in the matchup.
  • Update: It turns out they did get burned. And guess who was the author of the game-tying goal late in the third period? None other than Bobby Montour.
  • Don’t look now, but the Habs are tied for first in the NHL, with 16 points, and Dobes remains undefeated (6-0-0).
  • I will never tire of Arber Xhekaj flying into a scrum and immediately neutralizing at least two opposing players. I promise you every member of the Canadiens loves knowing that there’s a Xhekaj in the mix, waiting to pounce on over-aggressive players who simply can’t match him from a physical standpoint.

The Montreal Canadiens will not be back in action until Saturday, when they’ll face the Ottawa Senators 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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By Marc Dumont
Marc has been covering the Habs for over a decade. He previously worked for Journal Metro, The Athletic, The ... More about Marc Dumont

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