With but three games remaining in the regular-season schedule, the Canadiens entered Saturday’s matchup just two points behind Buffalo and two ahead of Tampa Bay, still with a chance to secure first place in the Atlantic Division. With the distraction of Cole Caufield’s 50th goal now in the past, it was a chance for the Habs to secure two points to stay in the hunt for playoff home-ice advantage.
Alas, the Blue Jackets were more desperate, more energized, more focused, and more aggressive on the night, and took advantage of repeated Habs errors in the defensive zone, scoring five goals on Jakub Dobes to keep their own playoff hunt alive. The bleu blanc et rouge will certainly need to play better than this if they hope to advance in the playoffs.
Habs Starting Lineup
Caufield – Suzuki – Slafkovsky
Texier – Kapanen – Demidov
Newhook – Danault – Dach
Veleno – Evans – Anderson
Matheson – Dobson
Hutson – Struble
Xhekaj – Engstrom
Dobes
Fowler
Ten Thoughts
1) The last few games in the season are often a very mixed bag, with some teams comfortably in the playoffs, others fighting for their lives, and yet others just trying to play the spoiler. In this case, the Habs still have an outside chance at claiming the top spot in the Atlantic, or at least home-ice advantage in the first round, but the Blue Jackets clearly came into the game more motivated and focused, trying to catch the Flyers for third in the Metropolitan and the final playoff spot in the East.
2) And that lack of focus showed early, as Boone Jenner picked up a loose rebound from a Zach Werenski shot, skated across the front of the net and backhanded the puck past Jakub Dobes’s outstretched trapper. Arber Xhekaj and Adam Engstrom had their assignments covered, but none of the forwards picked up Jenner as he skated to the net and across, giving the lead to Columbus just 1:13 into the game. Not the best work from the usually very responsible Jake Evans line.
3) 40 seconds later, the Canadiens followed that mess up with a penalty, as Mike Matheson was sent off for holding Kirill Marchenko to give the visitors a chance to double the lead. Fortunately, Dobes was able to turn away the three shots on net, but by the time the game reached the five-minute mark, the Blue Jackets held a 9-0 edge in shots. Where is the focused, aggressive Habs team we have been watching all this season?
4) Things were looking grim after Charlie Coyle made it 2-0, evading Matheson and Phillip Danault at the front of the net, tapping in a Jake Christiansen cross-ice pass, past Dobes’s outstretched left pad. Fortunately, the Canadiens were able to sustain some pressure in the second half of the period, and at 11:48, it paid off, as Lane Hutson made a clean zone entry and then a smart pass to Jake Evans. Evans matched that pass with his own, across the front of the net, and onto the stick of Josh Anderson who was driving to the net, as he is wont to do. Anderson lifted the puck over Jet Greaves’s left pad and into the top of the net to put the home team on the board.
5) The bleu blanc et rouge had their power play opportunity just past the 15-minute mark of the game, after Erik Gudbranson cross-checked Hutson, even if rather gently. In appreciation of that gentle check, the Habs were also pretty gentle with their power play, allowing the Blue Jackets’ aggressive penalty kill to repeatedly break up passes and clear the zone. The only real chance came just after the penalty expired, as Alexandre Texier had a scoring chance on a rush, but a little too far to cause any real worry for Greaves.
6) … and then, a minute (and a bit) into the second period, the Blue Jackets struck for another early goal and a 3-1 lead. Marchenko carried the puck into the Montreal zone, shaking off Slafkovsky’s half-hearted attempt to defend. Noah Dobson backed off, maybe expecting Slafkovsky to stay on Marchenko, but that gave the Columbus winger time and space, and he took advantage of it, snapping a shot from the right faceoff dot, beating Dobes high on the blocker side.
7) With the first three Columbus goals enabled by the Habs’ defensive mistakes, it was time for some variety, so the next one was started by a misjudgment by Xhekaj, who cleared the puck into the Blue Jackets’ zone just a stride or two before the red line, triggering an icing call. As the Habs’ tired defenders struggled to clear the zone, Oliver Kapanen ended up being called for hooking. At the end of the successful penalty kill, Matheson failed to clear the puck, and then, 30 seconds later, Jayden Struble shot the puck along the boards rather than making an easy clearing pass. Former Hab Sean Monahan got the puck in the right circle and snapped the puck past Dobes before either Struble or Hutson got close to him. Is that three, four, or five defensive mistakes, plus a shot that Dobes might have saved on another night?
8) Starting the final period down 4-1, the Habs finally had some spring in their step, and it finally paid off after Christiansen was sent to the box for cross-checking Anderson. The Habs only managed a single shot on the man advantage, but when your top scorer’s sweater says “Caufield” on it, sometimes that single shot is all you need. It was an innocuous-looking zone entry, but after Nick Suzuki flipped the puck to Caufield on his right, Mr. Saturday Night responded by sending a wrist shot over Greaves’s shoulder and into the very top far corner of the net, where it clinked off the post and into the net to bring Montreal within two.
9) Alas, that second goal was to be all that they would be able to score. They gave up a power play for Matheson jostling with Adam Fantilli, and it looked like it was a 5-2 game on a power play goal, but the referees were feeling generous to the Habs and waved off the goal based on goaltender interference, as minimal as it was. Werenski then gave the Habs a chance to get close, getting sent to sit in the sin bin after slamming Ivan Demidov head-first into the boards. They had some chances (and shots!) on the power play but could not capitalize in the first 1:20 of the advantage, and then Texier negated the rest of the power play by taking a holding penalty. A minute and a half later, the Blue Jackets sealed the win with a power play goal from Coyle to make it 5-2.
10) Besides the ugly loss, the bigger worry from the game were the injuries, with Noah Dobson sitting out the second half of the game after blocking a shot with his thumb, and then Demidov heading to the dressing room after being boarded by Werenski. With Dobson’s absence from the ice and Kaiden Guhle already missing from the lineup, Martin St-Louis had to perform some defence pairing gymnastics and give far more ice time, with Xhekaj and Struble both recording about 20 minutes on the ice. Fortunately, Demidov did return later, but there is speculation of an emergency recall of David Reinbacher from Laval, indicating that Dobson will probably sit out at least the next game and maybe more in order to recover from his injury. Kaiden Guhle is on the trip and could be a possibility to return as well.
HW Habs Three Stars
First Star: Lane Hutson (0g, 1a, 0 shots, +0, 26:43 TOI) was spectacular once again, even if he only recorded one second assist (and an unrecorded third assist on the second Montreal goal). On a night when the Habs really didn’t have their “A” game, Hutson still had the moves to create and maintain offence.
Second Star: Josh Anderson (1g, 0a, 1 shot, +0, 13:46) drove the net, which has always been his strength, and now he had a pretty pass from Jake Evans to work with. He took advantage to keep the Habs in the game when they kept bleeding defensive mishaps in their own zone.
Third Star: Ivan Demidov (0g, 0a, 4 shots, +0, 14:57 TOI) and Oliver Kapanen were playing well with their new(ish) linemate, Alexandre Texier, and not only did they have some good scoring opportunities, they are now giving up fewer scoring chances against than before, when Alex Newhook was the left winger on the second line. They were the only one of the Canadiens forward lines to have an xGF% of over 50.