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After another precious victory against an Eastern Conference playoff team, Montreal hit the ice to face off with the red-hot Columbus Blue Jackets, a dominant force since January and Rick Bowness’s taking over of the bench. Montreal and Columbus held the second and fourth-best scoring records in recent months, respectively, although this game wasn’t a battle of the offence.

Jakub Dobes started again, obviously, as he is now the starting goaltender since HabsWorld declared it last week. The game against Carolina codified his status, and his performance on Thursday likely informed the management of his starting status in the playoffs. His 24th victory of the season was earned with sweat and grit against a surging team in Columbus that left nearly all of it on the ice. The 2–1 win was incredibly important for Montreal, especially to deny a point to the Blue Jackets.

Habs Lineup

Cole Caufield — Nick Suzuki — Juraj Slafkovsky
Alex Newhook— Oliver Kapanen — Ivan Demidov
Zach Bolduc – Jake Evans – Joe Veleno
Josh Anderson – Phillip Danault — Brendan Gallagher

Lane Hutson – Jayden Struble
Mike Matheson — Noah Dobson
Kaiden Guhle – Alexandre Carrier

Jakub Dobes

10 Thoughts

1) The Blue Jackets took the ice and hit four shots before two minutes had passed, cycling in the Canadiens zone and reminding the home crowd of last Saturday’s first-period shelling. They drew the first power play when Juraj Slafkovsky “held” Kirill Marchenko as he drove to the net. On the replay, the truth was clear, Marchenko was holding onto Slafkovsky’s right arm and leaned to the inside. After winning the opening faceoff and taking a quick shot, the Blue Jackets gained the zone again and tried to stretch Montreal’s penalty killers. Zach Werenski, Olympic gold winner with Team USA, danced along the blueline to create openings throughout the zone. Despite a few dozen seconds of in-zone pressure, Suzuki was able to win the final faceoff against former Hab Sean Monahan and cleared the zone to finish the kill.

2) Back at even strength, Columbus did not stop its attack. Thankfully for the home crowd, the Canadiens started playing some of their game as well. The Habs got on the board first when Jayden Struble sent a wrist shot past Jet Greaves. Hutson had tried to make a play at the blueline following some extended zone time for Montreal’s bottom six, but had the puck knocked off his stick as he pivoted into the zone. Hutson did not give up on the play, and fought his coverage to grind the puck back to himself and dump it off to the point. Zach Bolduc had assumed his slot, but did not let it go right away. Bolduc carried the puck towards the slot and nearly reached the top of the circle with a fake shot before a cross seam pass to Struble, who had crept down the wing and was wide open to get within ten feet of the netminder.

3) Boone Jenner and Damon Severson connected to tie the game on a two-on-one play that exposed a flaw in the Habs defensive corps once more. The play started in Columbus’s zone when Hutson pinched a loose puck along the wall. Unfortunately, his commitment to blocking the outlet pass was quite lacking, and the puck was easily chipped past him to a breaking Jenner. Brendan Gallagher had also failed to close off the puck below the goal line, and Severson skated the length of the ice uncontested as the Habs outnumbered the Blue Jackets on the wrong side of the neutral zone. Once more, Struble was alone on a two-on-one and overcommitted to the shot, enabling a quick pass across and a quicker wrist shot below Dobes’ glove.

4) The visiting squad continued to squeeze Montreal’s forwards high in the zone and along the boards, forcing them off pucks and outskating them to the rebounds. Some quick notes as the period expired: Cole Caufield had a massive miss late after Juraj Slafkovsky fed him in the slot, Dobes made another huge save on Adam Fantilli to keep the game tied, and the whole Canadiens lineup committed to matching the physicality.

5) After a period of 13 to 6 shots in favour of the Blue Jackets, both teams were looking to take control in the second period with the next score. Consequently, both teams earned and gave up seriously high danger chances for the other. Suzuki failed to thread a pass through on a two-on-one with Alex Newhook and Struble’s wide-open blast went wide on a deflection. Miles Wood had to be stonewalled by Dobes in tight after Struble and Hutson gave the puck away below the goal line again, and then moments later, Dobes had to make an incredible leaping save on Kirill Marchenko. As the game developed in the second, ice began to open up in the middle of each zone, leading to more and more glaring opportunities for the goaltenders to make themselves look good.

6) Wood made the executive decision to bear hug Lane Hutson and attempt to crush his smaller frame along the Blue Jackets bench, behind the play. Wood, having already been laid out three times since the first minute of the game, received a roughing call for mauling Hutson and Jake Evans took an opposing roughing penalty when he came crashing into the scrum to defend the Calder winner. The ensuing four-on-four opened even more ice, but Montreal was not able to get any moments of possession after losing the faceoff.

7) Werenski was rung up for interfering with Josh Anderson’s ability to hold his stick in the midst of another dominant Columbus shift. Montreal had been bending but not breaking, laying heavy hits in front of the net to keep Dobes’ vision clean. Montreal’s top line tried to put one past Greaves but two dangerous shots couldn’t convert. Caufield heeled a shot on an excellent tic-tac-toe play, and Slafkovsky’s bumper shot was wide, hitting Demidov instead. Newhook’s one shot for the second unit was also hampered, barely reaching Greaves’ pads.

8) Mason Marchment was unable to convert on a breakaway thanks to Dobes’ brilliant left pad, Caufield just had his stick lifted before burying the puck in an empty cage, and Noah Dobson fell three times (ice is slippery) in the final two minutes of the middle frame. To close the period, Montreal spent the last 30 seconds desperately fending off a Blue Jacket push to take the lead. Dobes was solid and squared once more, sending one team to the dressing room disappointed and the other relieved.

9) Bolduc struck at 15:24 of the third period for his 11th of the season for an absolutely critical goal. Fed by Jake Evans as he was closed off along the boards, Bolduc caught the inside of the post on the near side, Greaves in the reverse VH stance once more, similar to Struble’s. Time rapidly declined in the third period as the flow of the game increased in pace and the whistles stopped coming. Each team kept the puck moving as much as possible, and Dobes was needed to be steady on perimeter shots as well as the occasional defensive breakdown from Montreal.

10) With just over five minutes remaining in the third period, Boone Jenner was pushing to the net to get a stick on a crossing pass. His path took him directly in Dobes, resulting in a goaltender interference call, one of Montreal’s few in the entire season. With an opportunity to take a stranglehold on the game, the top unit was hard on the puck whenever available and almost forced the puck through the middle of the ice for shots. Demidov completed two of three cross-seam passes, a welcome feature that has very recently returned to the power play. Greaves was stellar on a number of shots from Hutson, Caufield, and Suzuki during the advantage, and blockered away a Dobson blast as it expired. Greaves was pulled with just over a minute left, and Dobes was sensational in the final seconds to keep the Habs ahead to secure the win.

HabsWorld Habs 3 Stars

1st Star – Jakub Dobes

Beyond Dobes’ technical and desperation saves that were critical for Montreal, he has drastically improved his rebound control. The Canadiens recently posted a training video featuring goalie drills that the team is practicing, highlighting positioning and rebound location choice. Dobes has put on a show for two straight games with exactly these two skills, calmly knocking hard shots into corners or open areas of ice where the puck can be retrieved. Dobes starred at home once more.

Stats: 25 SV, 1 GA, .962 SV%

2nd Star – Zach Bolduc

Bolduc was able to break his multi-month goalless drought by netting the winner. He had spunk and jump all night, hitting anything that moved and putting the luck on net just as often. Over the last week, Bolduc’s play and pace has greatly increased, hopefully a sign of things to come in the playoffs.

Stats: 1 goal, 1 assist, +2, 2 shots, 1 block, 3 hits, 13:51 T.O.I.

3rd Star – Jayden Struble

Struble also broke a multi-month goalless drought, given that he scored his first of the season! Furthermore, the goal certainly went to his legs and reminded him of playing back at Northeastern, where he was involved in plenty of offence. Struble took more shots and jumped into the play a few times Thursday, but was also caught out alone on the goal against. More communication and further practice of scenarios is needed for the whole defensive group if they hope to win a round next month.

Stats: 1 goal, +1, 1 block, 1 shot, 12:05 T.O.I.