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After breaking their losing streak on Tuesday with an overtime win over Vegas, Montreal engaged the crème de la crème of the National Hockey League in their final home game before the Olympic break. The Colorado Avalanche donned Quebec Nordiques sweaters at the Bell Centre, and in the midst of a slump of their own, they got off to a similar start to the loss from Wednesday night. After delivering a dominant 3-1 opening period, Montreal maintained their offence despite some time playing loose with their own coverage.

Jakub Dobes got his second consecutive start, and Montreal fans were looking forward to noticing any immediate differences for the goaltenders since the firing of Montreal’s goaltending coach, Eric Raymond. He ended up having his name chanted repeatedly as he delivered timely saves after pristine saves, but most importantly, was calm in the net once more. The Canadiens put up seven goals, paying back the November 27th score that the Avalanche dropped on them and furthering their slide this month.

Habs Lineup

Cole Caufield — Nick Suzuki — Alexandre Texier
Juraj Slafkovsky – Oliver Kapanen — Ivan Demidov
Zachary Bolduc – Jake Evans – Kirby Dach
Josh Anderson – Phillip Danault — Brendan Gallagher

Mike Matheson – Kaiden Guhle
Lane Hutson – Noah Dobson
Arber Xhekaj – Alexandre Carrier

Jakub Dobes

10 Thoughts

1) The puck dropped, and both solid jerseys clashed in a spectacular showing of colour et grande histoire. Montreal struck first less than a minute in, breaking into the zone and earning a faceoff to Scott Wedgewood’s left. Kapanen beat Nathan MacKinnon on the faceoff, and Slafkovsky knocked loose the puck back to Hutson at the point. Montreal’s best blueliner quickly darted into the open slot before double-clutching his shot and putting a lightning pass on Dobson’s stick for a one-timer. Dobson had drifted to the left circle and wired the shot past Wedgewood to give Montreal an early lead.

2) Following Dobson’s tally, the game entered a slow lull for the next few minutes as pucks went out of play, and the Montreal skaters were caught twice with the attacking Avalanche penetrating the blueline. They paid the price on the second, as known Habs-killer Brock Nelson tied the game after 4:09 of gameplay. The Habs cleared the puck out of their zone, and Girard picked it up just inside the Avalanche zone, then moved it to his partner, Josh Manson. Manson hit Nelson as he was curling up ice over the Habs crest, then watched as he carried the puck unimpeded over the blueline, cut to the right, and unloaded a fast wrist shot through the blocking legs of Hutson. It beat Dobes wide right and under his glove, bouncing right back out of the net like a spring.

3) At 5:24, Keaton Middleton took a cross-checking minor after laying the wood on Dach as he entered the Avalanche zone along the wall. Montreal’s top power play unit lost the initial faceoff and had to endure a risky chance going the other way before finishing on one of their own. They moved the puck back up the ice following the shorthanded rush and worked the puck all the way around the zone with rapid perimeter passes, eventually settling with Demidov for the first shot. Demidov put the puck on net, Wedgewood made the clear first stop, but Suzuki was waiting on the doorstep, having achieved body position on Manson before he realized the Habs captain was there. Suzuki tucked the rebound behind Wedgewood to reestablish Montreal’s lead at home, barely past the first five minutes of play.

4) Less than 15 seconds later, Anderson and Martin Necas collided, resulting in Montreal’s first penalty of the game. Anderson was pursuing Necas into the corner and stuck his leg out, effectively tripping him. The Avalanche lost the opening faceoff of their own and struggled to initially enter the zone, and valiant efforts from Evans, Matheson, Danault, and Kapanen gave Suzuki his second of the night. Following a break and clear for Evans and Danault, in which they forced the power play to leave the zone and pursue them through to the opposite blue, the ensuing dump-in from Colorado gave Matheson an opportunity to clear. His weak push fortuitously glanced off the skate of the official and onto Kapanen’s waiting stick. He airlifted a backhand into the neutral zone and into the stride of a streaking Suzuki, who blew past Wedgewood and gave Montreal one of their few backhand goals of the year. The physicality entered a new atmosphere following Montreal’s 3-1 lead, and thundering hits from Xhekaj and Brent Burns had the crowd vocal. Both teams eventually made it to the dressing rooms after hammering each other and exchanging glancing blows on offence to close out the period, Notably, Demidov, Hutson, and Slafkovsky had an excellent shift that included three dangerous chances on Wedgewood and another exploding stick. Perhaps the Habs fired the wrong administrative role.

5) Montreal opened the second with Caufield putting his loose stick into the face of former Hab Artturi Lehkonen as they both went into the boards to the right of Dobes. The Avalanche power play continued to look mildly disjointed with their attack structure, and Cale Makar quickly took it upon himself to wrangle the unit. He broke into the zone with weak Montreal gaps and put a shot on net, getting the faceoff and another chance for Colorado when they won it. Montreal’s penalty killers were very passive towards the forwards while they controlled the puck, but collapsed on any loose puck and drove the Avalanche into the boards, looking to outwork them into earning a clear. The strategy worked, helped by the fact that Colorado placed zero skaters in the slot, and the home team was able to expel the puck enough for Caufield to exit the box and re-enter the action.

6) Quickly following the successful kill, Demidov took a high stick when Sam Malinski swung his stick near his face, trying to bat an outlet pass out of the air near the Avalanche’s blue line. The top unit was back out, but two give-and-go chances were crushed by brutal Slafkovsky giveaways. The Slovakian winger was in the right place to receive passes from Demidov and Suzuki, but he did not see or sense Colorado’s defenders right in his own passing lane before offloading the puck. Montreal wasn’t able to get a proper shot on net despite the exciting puck movement and back-and-forth action from both teams. As the second period wore on, Montreal appeared to begin to risk their first-period lead on loose defensive gaps and squandering high-danger chances.

7) Colorado began to hold onto the puck for a few more seconds each possession, and eventually, Dobes was forced to make an amazing pad save followed by another sliding stop on three extremely high-danger chances right in his face. First, Parker Kelly received a pass just outside the crease and tried to deke around him, but Dobes’ right pad was stable along the ice to close the far post option. Second, Sam Girard was stonewalled when he drifted into the slot and ripped a shot from above the inside hashmarks. A minute later, Girard was sprung on a breakaway and Dobes got the right pad down again to close the far post. Girard tried the same back-and-forth move and Suzuki, but instead, his forehand couldn’t beat the bleu-blanc-rouge pads of Ohio State alum Dobes. With 7:25 remaining in the second period, Colorado’s redwoods had already started the slightly-higher-than-normal elbows included in their hits, exemplified by a Burns in-play facewash on Bolduc and a Josh Manson extended elbow near Kaiden Guhle’s head. The most-attendant “referee” called nothing on the play, but on the scrum they crew decided they could initiate a review. Following the break, the only possible option league officials could have possibly made was made: no penalty on the play. Guhle remained in the dressing room for a few minutes, and the crowd got a literal front row seat for the replay clearly showing Manson leading directly into Guhle as he cut behind him and deliberately extended his elbow towards his head. Once more, unelected bureaucrats control whether the rules are actually enforced or not in an official function.

8) Colorado would put a quick strike past Dobes to get the score to 5-2 in the dying seconds of the middle frame. Montreal got turned around in their zone, and Dobes could not get across with the right timing to stop Kiviranta’s deflection chance. The Habs veterans were puck-watching a drifting pass that got quick Colorado forwards into the zone and the visitors got possession below the goal line. Xhekaj couldn’t hold onto possession from Jack Drury, who fed the puck back into the slot for a Malinski shot. Malinski missed wide, but the puck bounced off the end boards to Joel Kiviranta, who beat the sprawling Dobes.

8) Despite this disagreeable behavior and the late Avalanche marker, Montreal was able to secure the lead with a fourth goal courtesy of Wedgewood and Evans. Evans doggedly pursued a dumped-in puck and beat his defensive coverage with striking speed. Wedgewood was easily stripped of the puck, and Evans finished off a classic wraparound puck into an empty cage. It was precisely the type of backbreaking goal late in a period that Montreal would give up game after game during the past few seasons. 40 seconds later and feeling the energy and lifelessness in their opponents, Dach added to the attack with another dirty wraparound goal that Wedgewood likely felt worse about than Evans’. Bolduc took the puck through his own zone and sent it up ice for a bump pass by Hutson to Dach and to gain the blue line. Dach was able to work the puck back to Bolduc in the slot before darting down low to get it back. He skated behind Wedgewood and just tried to tuck it in along the ice. Wedgewood did not have the post securely, and the puck could be clearly seen behind him after a second and rattling around off of two skates.  Dobes then needed to stop another blast from Malinski, Montreal’s forwards having suddenly forgotten that they are indeed not stuck in molasses. To start the third, he made another big save at 1:40 and had to stay active as the Habs got hemmed in their own zone for a few shifts. The Avalanche were buzzing early in the final frame, and Montreal did little to help themselves by continuously passing the puck backwards into their own zone and allowing the hard pressure from the forecheckers to break them down. Ross Colton was able to cut the deficit to two because of this when Hutson kept the puck low in his zone and was able to be pushed off the puck before Valeri Nichushkin was able to get possession. He was able to pivot twice and shake off Danault, who strangely gave up his gap and allowed Nichuskin to circle behind Dobes unopposed. The winger then laid a pass onto Colton’s free stick in front of the net, and Colton hammered it home.

10) Carrier gave the Habs their sixth goal of the game on Wedgewood after going on a two-on-one with Suzuki and waiting out the goaltender up high. Montreal capitulated to a loose exchange of chances going both ways, and were bailed out by a Dach shot block in the slot that bounced the puck to Suzuki near the blueline. Carrier blew the zone from in front of the net and beat Necas up the ice to give Suzuki an opening to pass to. When the Canadiens faithful at the Bell Centre started the wave, it almost seemed to give the players a modicum of pause and/or hesitation, leading to choppy play from both sides. Slafkovsky and his line were able to capitalize when Hutson stripped his man near Demidov, who then took the puck up the ice with Slafkovsky. The Canadiens continued to skate and work for offensive chances through to the final whistle, Xhekaj and Middleton wrestled before getting sent off, resulting in a four-on-four stretch to end the game. Montreal won the faceoff and did precisely that, capping a 7-3 win over the not-so-Quebec Nordiques.

HabsWorld Habs 3 Stars

1st Star – Jakub Dobes

The first rookie goaltender for the Montreal Canadiens this season has the best record of the players at the position, and in no small way was that record’s quality of play on display on Thursday. From individual dazzling stops in the first period to pivotal sequences of saves in the second, Dobes affirmed both his role in the net and perhaps a more permanent starting role moving forward after the Olympic break. He closed the door with another early in the third period and kept the skaters’ confidence high, and then more spectacular saves later to reaffirm a lead that should’ve remained at at least four.

Stats: 26 SV, 3 GA, .897% SV%

2nd Star – Nick Suzuki

The Habs captain set the tone for the offence in the first period with his two goals, and then hard-nosed play in the second. He set up Carrier to reestablish the commanding lead in the third period and did not allow the giveaways to get to his body language. Suzuki led from the front and from the scoresheet, precisely where he is needed for the stretch run and where he will need to stay in such a hotly-contested division.

Stats: 2 goals, 1 assist, +2, 4 shots, 2 blocks, 1 hit, 17:42 T.O.I.

3rd Star – Montreal Defensive Corps

Necas, MacKinnon, and Makar were kept completely off the scoresheet during Thursday’s contest, a feat few and far between during a historic Avalanche season. The defence played physically and kept pace with them, despite some abominable gaps left at times, but maintained the focused priority. The shutdown mission was clear, and they fulfilled that objective to the letter. No system was perfect, but I’m sure the coaching staff and defenders would have been happy to accept that they would get scored on but no offence would come from those three. Guhle and Matheson delivered huge blocks on kills and the rush, Carrier and Dobson scored massive goals, and Xhekaj was active in the neutral zone, ending plays before they developed. Hutson was, well, who else?

Stats: 2 goals, 4 assists, +6 aggregate, 10 shots, 7 blocks, 5 hits