NHL: Boston Bruins at Montreal Canadiens
Credit: Eric Bolte-Imagn Images

The Montreal Canadiens hosted the Boston Bruins on Saturday night, looking to beat their historic rivals in a battle of the top teams in the Atlantic Division.

The Bruins took hold of the momentum early, but the Habs finally showed a little pushback, something that had been missing in previous games.

In the end, the Bruins were victorious, emerging with a 3-2 win.

Let’s dive into the highlights!

Setting The Tone

The festivities started immediately after puck drop, as Jayden Struble faced a much bigger Nikita Zadorov following some warm-up shenanigans between the longtime rivals.

There was another fight a few moments later, which featured Tanner Jeannot getting the best of Arber Xhekaj.

Team-Wide Struggles

It would be easy to solely blame Samuel Montembeault for Boston’s first goal of the game, but that would be ignoring the poor play from the rest of the lineup. Yes, Montembeault bit on the fake as if he was a hungry pike on the hunt, but the play should have never landed on David Pastrnak’s blade in the first place.

It was a team-wide effort. Or more accurately, a team-wide failure.

A Little Offence

The Habs managed to produce a flood of goals, well, at least compared to previous games. Jake Evans scored an important shorthanded goal to tie the game at 1-1, while also providing much more offence than the team’s floundering powerplay.

The first line also rekindled some of the early-season success, when captain Nick Suzuki sent a perfect pass to Cole Caufield, who scored his 13th goal of the year to cut the Bruins lead to just 3-2.

It’s fairly evident that Suzuki is dealing with a nagging injury, and yet he’s still the one driving the offence, as per tradition.

Unfortunately, it was all for naught, as the Bruins managed to desperately hold onto their one-goal lead, securing a 3-2 win.

Powerplay Fundamentals

The Canadiens had ample opportunities to take a dominant lead, especially when we consider they were given two extended 5v3 powerplays, but much like a poorly blended Blizzard at Dairy Queen, there was a lot of excitement at first, and yet, it ended with vanilla-powered disappointment.

There was some puck movement involved, but they rarely forced Jeremy Swayman to re-adjust, making life very easy on the Bruins netminder.

Lane Hutson

It’s probably fair to say Lane Hutson is going through a difficult stretch, relatively speaking. He sets the bar so high that any downtick in play is easy to recognize, and I’d argue that’s certainly the case at the moment.

He’s forcing the play, looking to build a little momentum in the process.

I’ve seen this before, especially when Hutson was playing for Boston University. When things would go awry for the Eagles, he would put an unreasonable amount of pressure on himself to make something positive happen every shift. It’s an instinct most good players have, but forcing the play in the NHL will inevitably lead to giveaways.

It’s a delicate balance, as Hutson also generates a lot high-danger scoring chances when he plays an aggressive brand of hockey.

Welcome To The Show

All things considered, it was a very encouraging game for rookie Jared Davidson.

Of course, his ice time was limited, but that had more to do with the teams taking an endless stream of penalties than Davidson being a rookie.

Admittedly, I’m a big fan of Davidson, because he seems to make something happen on every shift, regardless of the context, and that’s something that NHL coaches also tend to love.

It was a small sample size, but there were only positives to discuss after Davidson’s first NHL game.

Coincidentally, or not, it’s also worth pointing out the fourth line enjoyed its best game of the season in terms of puck possession (65 xGF%).

The Montreal Canadiens are back in action on Monday, facing the Blue Jackets in Columbus, with the puck drop 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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