Marc Dumont
It’s hard to quantify just how massive of a win that was for the Montreal Canadiens.
After a puke-worthy performance against the Kraken on Tuesday night, the odds were stacked against the team in San Jose.
Historically, practically and emotionally.
But staring down the barrel of a 1-7 start, the Habs played much closer to what a competent hockey team is supposed to look like in their 4-0 shutout victory over the Sharks. Competent verging on competitive.
The importance of last night’s victory was summed up by Nick Suzuki post-game.
“We had a great team meeting before the morning skate,” said the young centreman, who finally got off the schneid with his first two points of the season. “Just talking about how we needed to respond. We want to have a good road trip and we didn’t play our best in Seattle. I thought the boys had a great response tonight and (we) played one of our better hockey games of the season.”
Well, there was only one way to go and that was up after their game in the Pacific Northwest. Now they’ll try and salvage their Western road trip with a back-to-back against the Kings and Ducks starting Saturday.
To the takeaways.
Night of Firsts
Considering the Montreal Canadiens start through seven games, there were plenty of firsts to get out of the way for crucial members of the team. Jake Allen picked up his first shutout (we’ll get to that). Josh Anderson, after spurning chances that could have resulted in at least 10 goals by now, scored into an empty net to break his goose egg. Suzuki, a year out from his big money extension, finally got his first points on the board. Atlas-incarnate Brendan Gallagher smiled the grin of all grins after his first goal of the year. There were no smiles for Alexander Romanov after his first of the season and second of his career. But there was a high-five to backup Samuel Montembeault as he left the ice following his first fight of the year.
Collectively, it was also the Montreal Canadiens first road win of the season and, dare I say it, their most complete game of the year. The 6-1 victory at home over Detroit was a formality mid-way through the second period. Last night, the Habs had to be on their toes against a Sharks team that continued to press deep into the third period. Focus, something that the team has dipped in and out of, had to remain high until Anderson’s empty-netter. In all three phases of the game, the Canadiens competed. Hard. There were still several mistakes, but the night of firsts from several key players can only elevate their and the team’s confidence going forward.
Move over Haradrian!
The Allen Wall was impregnable. No fan would tell you that Jake Allen standing in for Carey Price has been anywhere close to the reason why the Montreal Canadiens have been a dumpster fire to start the year. But he was certainly off against Seattle and surrendered arguably his first bad goal of the season on Brandon Tanev’s first in tight.
How did he respond? Like a true professional. Unflappable at times, he was Price-like in the way he projected a calm demeanor to his teammates. While he wasn’t overly taxed in the first period, he stood out in the second as the game continued to hang in the balance. It wasn’t just standout saves on Cogliano or Balcers either. It was the puck tracking off of tips. His economical movement in the crease. His positioning to stop screened shots. His rebound control to kill the play.
In the third, he simply raised the bar on his own previously set standard. He turned the style on with huge stops on Dahlen, Labanc and Eklund. And as the clock struck midnight and his teammates shuffled towards him in the handshake line, you could tell they meant it when they said “Helluva game”.
He has stood in admirably through seven extremely mentally challenging games. He has played well but the team in front of him continued to collapse. It was encouraging to see him rewarded with some offense and in the end a win.
Support system
If the Montreal Canadiens have been disconnected through seven games then they were connected last night. Especially breaking out of their own zone. There has been many a game where the forwards vacate the zone and wait for passes into the neutral zone from their defencemen. Against the Sharks, the Habs appeared to be nearing closer to that famous block-of-five that head coach Dominique Ducharme has drilled into all of our collective brains.
Whether it was a centreman or a winger, there was rarely a moment where the team had possession in the defensive zone that there wasn’t a forward within 10 to 15 feet of the puck. With them coming low, defencemen like David Savard and Ben Chiarot weren’t forced to make hero passes to the red line to be turned over. In turn, the Canadiens could generate speed through the neutral zone. Like Ducharme says, it’s a puzzle. And the fundamental building blocks of their game seemed to start falling into place in San Jose.
“Each line was going tonight and I thought we were closer to the puck as well,” surmised Anderson post-game. “Which helped the D out a lot, breaking out of our zone.”
One basic thing that really stood out was the support of the forwards for pinching defencemen. There was constantly a winger filling in for someone on the back end being aggressive down the boards. It’s little details like that that eliminate odd-man rushes and quality scoring chances. Or at least limits them.
What’s left to say about Jeff?
Do you remember Men in Black? Mars Attacks? Invasion of the Body Snatchers? Literally any alien movie the past 60 years? They come down and take over the body of some poor sap and don’t even do a good job hiding that they’ve done it.
Well, that’s what has happened to Montreal Canadiens defenceman Jeff Petry. Somebody call Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones.
While nearly everyone else on the blueline had an improved game against the Sharks, Petry continued to struggle. Mightily. It’s not just that you rarely see him drive into the zone with the puck on his stick. But he continues to make multiple silly mistakes that somehow went unpunished last night.
Let’s run them down. He abandoned his side of the ice to pinch horizontally across the blueline, albeit while he was tired. Result? He didn’t get there and Simek beat Mathieu Perreault up ice for a high quality chance. In the second he tried to headman the puck to Suzuki right up the middle in his own end. What it turned out to be was a terrible giveaway. Only Suzuki taking a hooking penalty denied a slot shot from Erik Karlsson. Beat out from behind the net to the front by Balcers for a big cross-ice chance that Allen stopped. Nearly sprung Hertl on a breakaway after fanning on a pass across the blueline on the power-play that Suzuki turned on the jets to break up.
Before, during and after was filled with all kinds of high risk passes or bobbling of the puck. He still hasn’t recorded a point yet. His early season struggles have been one of the more baffling storylines to this early Canadiens season. He has to turn his game around for this team to have a chance to do anything.
Panda Power
You can call it Tsar Star or something like that. Either way, Alexander Romanov had his best game of the season. Hallelujah!
The young Russian is at his best when he is aggressive and involved. He was both of those things last night. Early on, he ran over Labanc. Just to get a taste. Get himself warmed up. Then he blew another Shark at the blueline.
After that, he started joining the rush. Not in spite of his team’s defensive priorities. He was reactionary but not reckless. He did what the coaching staff has surely been communicating to him and every defenceman early in their careers. Pick your spots.
Were their hiccups? Sure. A turnover deep in his own zone early led to a chance for Logan Couture. A bad pass was picked off at the blueline and forced his defensive partner Savard to take a tripping penalty. Those will likely continue to happen in the immediate future. But the balance of his game was really impressive.
A one-timer from the blueline for his first of the season was celebrated as if he’d just finished undoing the dishwasher. No emotion. But his physical play didn’t lack anything in the energy department. Ran over Balcers behind the net in the third. Then absolutely smoked Pederson with less than 30 seconds left leading to his second ever NHL fight against Gadjovich. Plus, he handled himself pretty well.
An assist short of the Gordie Howe hat-trick? Not a bad night for the Tsar. Or the Panda. Either or, he was damn good.
