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The first three games of Montreal’s first-round series against Washington are in the books. After a couple of tough losses, they took care of business on home ice to keep within striking distance in a series that could be shaken up by injuries.
The Week That Was
Apr. 21: Capitals 3, Canadiens 2 (OT) – The Habs carried two trends from the regular season into the opening game of the series. They struggled mightily to start the game and it took them until the third period to find their stride. Also during that late stretch, some late comebacks allowed them to at least get the game to overtime. That also happened with Cole Caufield and Nick Suzuki scoring in the final frame to set it to overtime. However, the Patrik Laine line got caught for icing, yielding an early defensive zone draw. That draw was lost, leading to some blown coverage and Alex Ovechkin batting in the winner.
Apr. 23: Capitals 3, Canadiens 1 – This time, to counter their early-game struggles, Montreal was much more slow and deliberate to start the game, looking as if they were going to play for the goalless draw through 20 minutes. Frankly, it wasn’t a bad idea and it worked. Christian Dvorak scored early in the second to give the Habs the lead but they couldn’t hold it with Connor McMichael and Dylan Strome scoring quickly to give the home side the advantage. Once again, the Canadiens pressed in the third but this time, Logan Thompson was at his best, paving the way for McMichael to bury the empty-netter.
Apr. 25: Canadiens 6, Capitals 3 – This was Montreal’s first playoff game with full attendance since 2017. It showed as the fans were certainly fired up, even after Matt Roy scored early to give Washington the advantage. Alexandre Carrier got it back in the last minute of the first, the first of two last-minute goals in the game. The second came from Caufield, giving the Habs the advantage late in the second, one they weren’t able to hold onto. However, Dvorak notched the eventual winner while Juraj Slafkovsky sealed it with his first career playoff tally, finishing a game that had both starting goalies get injured plus a benches-cleared incident at the end of the second. You don’t see that combination very often.
StatPack
Skaters:
| # | Player | GP | G | A | +/- | PIMS | SOG | ATOI |
| 8 | Mike Matheson | 3 | 0 | 1 | E | 0 | 7 | 24:43 |
| 11 | Brendan Gallagher | 3 | 0 | 2 | -2 | 0 | 9 | 15:38 |
| 13 | Cole Caufield | 3 | 2 | 1 | E | 0 | 19 | 20:09 |
| 14 | Nick Suzuki | 3 | 2 | 0 | E | 2 | 10 | 22:29 |
| 15 | Alex Newhook | 3 | 1 | 1 | -3 | 4 | 6 | 15:35 |
| 17 | Josh Anderson | 3 | 0 | 1 | -1 | 18 | 5 | 13:02 |
| 20 | Juraj Slafkovsky | 3 | 1 | 0 | +1 | 2 | 14 | 20:40 |
| 21 | Kaiden Guhle | 3 | 0 | 0 | E | 2 | 4 | 21:39 |
| 28 | Christian Dvorak | 3 | 2 | 0 | E | 0 | 6 | 16:13 |
| 40 | Joel Armia | 3 | 0 | 1 | +1 | 0 | 3 | 12:23 |
| 45 | Alexandre Carrier | 3 | 1 | 1 | E | 0 | 5 | 22:17 |
| 47 | Jayden Struble | 2 | 0 | 0 | -2 | 0 | 1 | 12:18 |
| 48 | Lane Hutson | 3 | 0 | 3 | E | 0 | 0 | 25:20 |
| 51 | Emil Heineman | 3 | 0 | 0 | E | 0 | 2 | 9:48 |
| 58 | David Savard | 3 | 0 | 1 | -2 | 0 | 1 | 10:52 |
| 71 | Jake Evans | 3 | 0 | 1 | E | 0 | 2 | 14:31 |
| 72 | Arber Xhekaj | 1 | 0 | 0 | +1 | 2 | 0 | 10:05 |
| 91 | Oliver Kapanen | 1 | 0 | 0 | E | 0 | 0 | 8:06 |
| 92 | Patrik Laine | 2 | 0 | 1 | -2 | 2 | 6 | 11:42 |
| 93 | Ivan Demidov | 3 | 0 | 0 | -2 | 0 | 1 | 13:28 |
Goalies:
| # | Player | Record | GAA | SV% | SO |
| 35 | Samuel Montembeault | 0-1-1 | 2.76 | .908 | 0 |
| 75 | Jakub Dobes | 1-0-0 | 2.12 | .875 | 0 |
Team Leaders:
Goals: Caufield/Suzuki (2)
Assists: Lane Hutson (3)
Points: Caufield/Hutson (3)
+/-: Armia/Xhekaj/Slafkovsky (+1)
PIMS: Josh Anderson (18)
Shots: Cole Caufield (19)
News And Notes
– Patrik Laine was scratched for Friday’s Game 3 due to an upper-body injury that’s believed to be a wrist issue. The team announced he’d be evaluated daily which shouldn’t necessarily be construed as day-to-day. Kaiden Guhle initially had that said about him earlier in the season and he missed two months.
– With Montreal electing not to recall a third goalie, they were forced to dress the emergency goalie when Samuel Montembeault went down near the midway mark of the second period. That was Patrick Chevrefils. If anyone’s wondering, Washington has Clay Stevenson up so when Thompson was injured in the third period on Friday, they were eligible to dress Stevenson had Charlie Lindgren gotten injured. There’s no word on how long Montembeault might be out for.
– The Canadiens had nine different players make their NHL playoff debuts through the first three games of the series, the final three coming on Friday when Arber Xhekaj and Oliver Kapanen both got into the game while Jakub Dobes was the third when he came in for Montembeault.
Last Game’s Lines:
Caufield – Suzuki – Slafkovsky
Anderson – Dvorak – Gallagher
Newhook – Evans – Demidov
Heineman – Kapanen – Armia
Matheson – Carrier
Guhle – Hutson
Xhekaj – Savard
Semi-Final Thought
With the schedule already set for the series, there’s no point in previewing what’s left in terms of the matchups. Instead, let’s talk about the new matchup that could define and shape the remainder of this series. That would be the new battle between the pipes with both Samuel Montembeault and Logan Thompson looking iffy at least for Game 4 and speculatively, Thompson’s injury looked pretty serious as one that could keep him out for more of an extended stretch.
Now, it’s the matchup that no one could have reasonably seen coming just 48 hours ago – it’s Jakub Dobes versus Charlie Lindgren.
Lindgren has had an interesting year. After taking over as the starter last season, he and Thompson platooned for a while. But in the second half, Thompson started to see more ice time. He was playing well and Lindgren wasn’t. From January 1st to the end of the season (spanning 19 of his 39 outings), his save percentage was just .891 and while Thompson was near the top of the league in Goals Saved Above Expected (per MoneyPuck) at +26 (third-best), Lindgren was a -1, putting him in a tie for 57th league-wide. His performance was more like a typical backup and if it’s him in net the rest of the way, it should be easier for the Habs to score. Of course, in a short series, strange things can happen but Lindgren is certainly a downgrade.
Of course, Dobes was the backup heading into the playoffs for a reason and with fewer than 20 NHL appearances under his belt, he’s quite a wild card. We saw after Christmas that he’s capable on getting on a run and stealing some games and also that he can get rattled and lose several in a row. It’s not unlike the situation back in 2014 when Dustin Tokarski was called into action when Carey Price was injured. At the time, Tokarski’s experience at the top level was limited to just 10 games. By comparison, Dobes was at 16. I don’t think the drop-off from Montembeault is as much as Thompson to Lindgren but when you’re relying on a 23-year-old inexperienced rookie goalie, it’s hard to be overly confident.
It’s far too early to call this the turning point of the series but the goaltending injuries have the potential to shift things. We’ll see soon enough if it winds up being a boost for the Habs.
Final Thought
In this day and age, opinions from the fans can get amplified to the point where certain players get overly praised or vilified for things they don’t largely control. In Montreal’s case, that seems to be happening with Arber Xhekaj. His absence from the first two games seemingly brought him to the point of approaching mythical status in that he and he alone could dictate how the team will play and that him being dressed would magically give everyone on the team a boost. And with the Habs winning on Friday, this belief has seemingly been solidified.
Let’s get something straight. Xhekaj’s presence didn’t do a whole lot in this game. Did he deter Washington in any way from playing physically? I don’t think so. Did he stop Tom Wilson from playing like Wilson does? Nope. Did he make the Habs all decide to play more physical? It’s possible he might have helped a bit but I’d also give some credit to the fans who pumped the team up along with the reality that they came into this game down two to nothing in the series, making this close to a must-win. Guess what? Whether Xhekaj was there or not, they were going to elevate their game.
And don’t get me started about how the team is better when he’s in the lineup. The fact is that late in the season, the Habs had a better record without him than with him. He played all of one game during Montreal’s six-game winning streak and in that one, he didn’t crack ten minutes of ice time. Before that game, the Canadiens lost five straight with him in the lineup. Was that because of him or by coincidence? Clearly, it was the latter as he’s not good enough or impactful enough to drastically alter the outcome of games most nights unless his penchant for penalties proves costly.
Look, he was okay in Game 3. He flubbed a chance to clear the zone that directly contributed to Jakob Chychrun tying the game up but for the most part, his minutes were okay and in the playoffs, okay from the third pairing is usually fine. And they’re probably not going to change a winning lineup so he’ll get another game. But allow me to contribute what might be perceived as a controversial thought – the Habs would have comfortably won that game with Jayden Struble in the lineup too. It was not because of Xhekaj’s presence that they won on Friday.
Let’s not over-exaggerate Xhekaj’s limited contributions to justify the lineup change. He’s a role player with some strengths and some flaws that will require him to be carefully deployed. That’s not a must-play player, nor one who can single-handedly change this team’s fortunes as some would seem to believe. The hype does not match the reality and the hype is getting way over the top.
