Few people knew that the Canadiens had not won a regular season game in Toronto since 2021, but indeed, they had dropped 11 games in a row to the Maple Leafs at the Scotiabank Arena. The Habs came into town not so much looking to break that streak, but to show that they could play better than in the last few weeks, and be a credible playoff team.
They did achieve their goal, although it arguably should not have required a shootout to claim the two points. The Habs played a solid defensive game, got good goaltending and had plenty of scoring chances, but Dennis Hildeby played a strong game in goal for the Maple Leafs, leaving the final outcome up to the shootout.
Habs Starting Lines
Caufield – Suzuki – Slafkovsky
Texier – Kapanen – Demidov
Anderson – Evans – Gallagher
Davidson – Veleno – Bolduc
Matheson – Dobson
Struble – Hutson
Xhekaj – Carrier
Dobes
Montembeault
Ten Thoughts
1) Jakub Dobes shook off his seven-goal shellacking in Denver effectively with a two-goal performance against Winnipeg at home. Uneven goaltending has been at the root of much of Montreal’s struggles in the first third of the season, and another steady performance by the rookie goaltender would be another necessary step toward stability in that key area.
2) Selective shooting is reckoned to be a key reason behind the Canadiens’ high shooting percentage this season, but one can take that only so far: in the six minutes of the game, until the first Toronto power play, the visitors only had two shot attempts, both of them wide.
3) That penalty, a hooking call on Juraj Slafkovsky, saw the Toronto power play only get one shot on net, with the penalty kill aggressively taking away angles and clearing the puck. However, the subsequent man advantage the Canadiens gained after John Tavares high-sticked Noah Dobson wasn’t all that much better. Two shots, but the Leafs also had a shorthanded opportunity that Dobes was able to turn away.
4) The game opened up in the second period, and that played to the Canadiens’ strengths. There were more opportunities on the rush, and the quick transitions gave headaches to the slower Maple Leafs defence corps. Twice as many shot attempts as Toronto in the first seven minutes of the period was a complete turnaround from the start of the first frame.
5) That pressure paid off shortly after that, as the Habs’ fourth line was exerting pressure in the Toronto zone, as Troy Stecher got his puck into Joe Veleno’s skates. The referee’s arm shot up immediately to indicate a delayed tripping penalty, but the delayed penalty lasted less than 30 seconds. The power play itself was again clicking at full speed, though, with crisp passes, and this time recovering the puck after a failed pass to Slafkovsky in front of the net. Ivan Demidov’s cross-ice pass to Cole Caufield at the left-hand post was a bit wide, but Caufield stopped it with his skate, and quickly swatted the puck behind Hildeby for a 1-0 Montreal lead.
6) The Leafs came storming back with energy immediately after the Caufield goal, but that energy tapered off relatively quickly, and the Canadiens’ transition game started finding more and more openings in the Toronto defence. Zachary Bolduc was one who found an opening during a poor Toronto line change to skate into a breakaway with eight minutes remaining. Hildeby made a clean save with his trapper, but this was just one example of the rush attacks the Habs executed in the second, as they outshot the home team 14-3 during that period. Hildeby played an excellent game in the Toronto net, however.
7) The third period was much harder-fought, and Toronto held the edge in shots until the Leafs were called for too many men on the ice at 8:36. The power play looked good again, and the numerous Montreal fans in the building were anticipating another power play goal. It was not to be, though: after nearly two minutes of crisp passing, Nicolas Roy intercepted an Oliver Kapanen pass on the boards, and sent Scott Laughton on a breakaway rush. Laughton is no sniper, but he outskated Dobson and then slapped the puck over Dobes’s glove and into the top corner of the net to tie up the game.
8) It was a Kapanen pass from behind the net that precipitated that play, but the rookie centre more than made up for that on a penalty just about a minute later. Arber Xhekaj had been sent off to the box for hooking Dakota Joshua, as the big defender took away a scoring chance from the Toronto centre. The penalty kill was effective again, at least for the first minute, but after that, Toronto got set up. Kapanen lost his stick battling Auston Matthews in front of the net, but still managed to break up the power play–and prevent a scoring chance–with a stickless block of a Matthews shot.
9) Arguably, faceoff performance really doesn’t matter so much in the NHL–except in three-on-three overtime, where possession is everything. The Leafs dominated the faceoff stats all night, and it was no different in overtime, where they won every draw. As a result, they dominated possession, although the scoring chances were not so much different. Mike Matheson was so close to being the star of overtime, first making a poke check in front of the Montreal net, and then nearly beating Hildeby at the other end in the dying seconds of the extra period.
10) And so it was time for yet another shootout. After Dobes made a save on Matthews, Caufield lifted the puck into the top of the net while Hildeby was going down into the butterfly, giving the Habs an early lead. While William Nylander did manage to sneak the puck under Dobes’s pads, Alexandre Texier made the most of his first shootout appearance for the Habs, sneaking a shot through Hildeby’s five-hole to claim the two points for the Canadiens.
HW Habs Three Stars
First Star: Cole Caufield (1g, 0a, 4 shots, 3 hits, +0, 21:20 TOI) was dangerous all night, making moves and feints to get around defenders, and not being afraid to battle on the boards, either. He made a smart play to score the opening goal, and could easily have scored another goal or two.
Second Star: Joe Veleno (0g, 0a, 0 shots, 1 hit, +0, 11:12 TOI) is finally showing that he is capable of being a credible NHL player. His line, with Jared Davidson and Zachary Bolduc, played well all night, and the results show in Veleno’s 84% xGF percentage. He will not be a star player, but this is what the Habs need from their fourth line.
Third Star: Jakub Dobes (23 shots, 22 saves, .957 SV%, 0.87 GSAx) was solid–more than adequate– tonight, and that’s exactly what the team needs to maintain its momentum and secure a playoff spot. Dobes is now getting more starts than Samuel Montembeault, and that will probably continue until Montembeault finds his “A” game again.