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It was to be the third and final meeting of the two original-six rivals, as the Maple Leafs arrived in Montreal for a meeting with the Canadiens on Saturday. Securely ensconced in a playoff spot, Toronto was still hunting for more points in order to keep third place from Tampa Bay–not to mention Auston Matthews and William Nylander, both looking to pad their season point totals.

The Habs started the game well, and it looked to be a close one, but it all fell apart in the second period, with a combination of poor defensive coverage, goaltending miscues, and plain old bad luck. The final 4-2 score was likely a fair reflection of how the game went, and the Habs will need to wait until next season for their next chance to beat the Leafs.

Montreal’s Lines

Caufield – Suzuki – Slafkovsky
Gallagher – Newhook – Armia
Pearson – Evans – Anderson
Pezzetta – White – Harvey-Pinard

Matheson – Barron
Harris – Savard
Struble – Kovacevic

Montembeault
Primeau

10 Thoughts

1) The Habs started the game with a solid, if scoreless, period against the league’s highest-scoring team. They outshot and out-chanced the Leafs, even if the edge was not massive. Cole Caufield had a chance in front of the net early, but Ilya Samsonov’s pads loomed large in front of him; Samsonov gave up a big rebound on a Johnathan Kovacevic shot a minute later, and Tanner Pearson nearly potted it; and Caufield sent a perfect cross-ice pass to Suzuki later in the period, but the captain had little to shoot at, and ended up bouncing the puck off the crossbar.

2) Faceoff performance was a big factor in Montreal’s ability to generate scoring chances in the first period. With 11 wins in 15 pick drops (73%) they were able to create shots and scoring opportunities in the Leafs’ zone. Clearly not a sustainable percentage but it makes a difference when you can do it.

3) Things started to go off the rails rather quickly in the second period, though. At 2:21, Max Domi took advantage of poor net-front coverage by Jayden Struble to deflect an Ilya Lyubushkin pass through Samuel Montembeault’s pads. A rookie mistake, literally, as Struble did not keep Domi away from harm which is something for the young defender to work on.

4) The Canadiens’ luck went quickly from bad to worse, as an Auston Matthews cross-ice pass–behind Montembeault–hit David Savard’s skate and bounced into the back of the net just 17 seconds later to give Toronto a 2-0 lead. Deserved? Maybe not, but Lady Luck is well-known for her fickleness.

5) Luck aside, the two goals certainly energized the visitors, and the action largely shifted into the Montreal zone, as reflected by the 18-8 shots edge in the period, after a 9-4 Montreal edge in the first. And on one of those occasions that the Habs were hemmed in their own zone, some five minutes after the first two goals, Matthew Knies overpowered Jordan Harris in front of the net to tap in the rebound from a William Nylander shot. Four inches of height and thirty pounds does make a difference in the net-front battles, and Harris needs to get closer to Suzuki’s physique–he’s about the same height but 22 lbs lighter than Suzuki–in order to fight off the opposition.

6) The Leafs put a pretty bow on it 34 seconds later when Mitch Marner and Bobby McMann broke in on the attack. Struble was unable to block the pass by Marner, and Justin Barron couldn’t cover McMann, so it was a quick 4-0 score in eight minutes of play. Cayden Primeau got the call, and Montembeault headed back to the bench. Montembeault should likely have saved this goal and likely done a better job of controlling or covering the rebound on the previous one–but the absence of Arber Xhekaj and especially Kaiden Guhle was also very much apparent in the defensive play.

7) The Canadiens got their only power play opportunity of the game at 8:53 as Tyler Bertuzzi got his stick up into Mike Matheson’s face. Matheson thought the best way to pay back was by playing the puck, and just 10 seconds into the penalty, he sent the puck to Juraj Slafkovsky. Two Leafs were pursuing the big Slovak winger but he controlled the puck, swung to his left, and sent off a backhand cross-ice pass behind him without even looking. He clearly knew that Suzuki and/or Caufield would be looking for it, and so they were. Caufield was tied up in front of the net, but Suzuki was open, to Samsonov’s right, and snapped off a hard one-timer to beat the Russian goalie and get the bleu blanc et rouge on the board.

8) The last few minutes of the period brought some rare Canadiens pressure in the Toronto end, and the top line was buzzing all around the Leafs. Matheson carried the puck around the net and then threaded it through the net-front traffic to Caufield, who snapped it into the net before Samsonov had a chance to react. 4-2 wasn’t a bad score to finish a period that started so disastrously.

9) The third period was stronger, but the Habs really didn’t have much to show for it. And after Joel Armia blocked a Mitch Marner shot at nine minutes into the final period, Toronto was gifted a power play: McMann held on to Armia’s stick long enough to get the referee to call the big Finn for hooking. The best chance of the power play, though, was a Matheson shot on Samsonov as the Habs immediately took off on a short-handed attack. The most dangerous chance for Toronto was actually a Ryan Reaves–yes, Reaves!–break about a minute after the end of the power play.

10) Martin St. Louis pulled Primeau for an extra attacker with about two minutes left in the game, but Samsonov remained solid for the Leafs, turning away the three shots the Canadiens were able to get on net. On the other hand, as Toronto tried to gift another goal to Auston Matthews with the help of the empty net, they actually came up empty altogether.

HW Habs Three Stars

First Star: Nick Suzuki (1g, 1a, 6 shots, -1, 20:38 TOI) showed again that he can go toe to toe against the best forwards in the league. A pretty goal on the Slafkovsky pass and a setup play on the Caufield goal showed that he can score, too, in addition to playing the 200-foot game.

Second Star: Mike Matheson (0g, 2a, 3 shots, +0, 24:09 TOI) is at times much-maligned, but he showed again how much offence he is able to generate, and how good his game awareness is. The Kent Hughes trade that sent Jeff Petry to Pittsburgh for Matheson surely has to be described as highway robbery.

Third Star: Johnathan Kovacevic (0g, 0a, 1 shot, -1, 16:46 TOI) played well with Harris, and, apart from the third Toronto goal, managed to keep the Leafs’ attackers away from the net. Whether he has a future with the Habs remains to be seen, but he is at least showing that he is a credible defensive defenceman.