The Habs delivered an emotional and determined performance on Thursday as they hounded the puck all night long and made life miserable for the Flames. They won many races and battles to overcome a shaky start and skate away with a 4-2 victory to end their homestand.
The Habs took another one on the chin Thursday night against the Islanders as they completely crumbled in the second half of the second period and allowed Brock Nelson a four-goal night leading to a 6-2 loss that concluded with the Bell Centre fans mocking their own team near the end of the game.
Over the first two games of the season, the Habs have failed to pay the price to win puck battles. The results are therefore not surprising as they lost their second consecutive game on Thursday, this time by a 5-1 score against a team expected to float at the bottom of the league standings, the Buffalo Sabres.
The Habs got off to an okay start on Tuesday night in Toronto but things fell apart early and often as Samuel Montembeault faced plenty of shots in his first game in a Montreal uniform, one that saw the Maple Leafs pick up the 6-2 victory.
Ryan Poehling had a strong second half. Jesse Ylonen was one of the best players in the second period. Arber Xhekaj was quite strong. But all of these flashes came after the team’s top unit of Suzuki, Toffoli, Gallagher, Petry, and Romanov stepped up and led the way as the Habs played a fundamentally strong game to earn a 2-1 win over Ottawa on Saturday night.
As is usually the case, Monday’s preseason contest against Toronto was not very exciting. However, the team’s would be second line had a huge night as they hit the back of the net three times and combined for 10 points in a 5-2 victory.
The Habs played with tons of courage in Game 5 on Wednesday night, but the Lightning got a goal from Ross Colton in the second period and were able to trap their way to a 1-0 victory to take home the 2021 Stanley Cup.
In a game that likely took ten years off every single Habs fans’ life, Montreal blew two different one-goal leads before finding themselves shorthanded for four minutes with the game on the line. Price was heroic, Suzuki was on another level, and Anderson scored two huge goals as the Habs forced Game 5 with a 3-2 overtime victory.
After dominating the first forty minutes of the game, the Habs found themselves down 2-1. Tampa Bay shut things down in the third and the Habs simply didn’t have the offensive firepower to overcome the Lightning’s solid defensive play who got the 3-1 win and the 2-0 series lead in large part thanks to Andrei Vasilevskiy.
The Habs leaned on a defensive structure that has been frustrating their opponents all postseason to frustrate the Golden Knights on Tuesday night which helped them secure a 4-1 victory to take a 3-2 series lead.