by After beating the Buffalo Sabers 6-1 on Tuesday night and acquiring a new defenseman in a trade on Wednesday night, the Montreal Canadiens were hoping for a second win in as many games as they did against the Detroit Red Wings.
Unlike the Sabres, the Wings weren’t on the floor, and when the Canadiens scored, they didn’t let up but hit right back. Emil Heineman scored the game’s first goal when his quick shot beat Cam Talbot, who was playing his first game since Dec. 1 after being sidelined with a lower-body injury.
The puck landed right in the goaltender’s five-hole as he tried to press the pads, but it was too little, too late. Jake Evans, who scored in his 300th game, received the first assist of the game, while Mike Matheson received the secondary assist. The goal seemed to wake up the Wings and they began to push back, which led to Patrick Kane scoring an impressive goal from close range over Samuel Montembeault’s shoulder at the near post. Granted, the space shouldn’t have been there, but Kane’s hands are still as amazing as ever.
Shortly after, Kirby Dach was sent to the box for high sticking, taking penalties has become a habit for him, but it wasn’t Detroit that scored while he was in the box, it was Montreal. Evans grabbed the bag from Lukas Raymond and flew to the net, where he scored a beautiful goal that gave the Canadiens a 2-1 lead. The center really stood out for the Canadiens tonight and the more he plays, the more he does. Will he pull out of Montreal or will he want to stay?
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Less than a minute later, Jeff Petry launched a shot from the blueliner that Joe Veleno deflected, putting everyone back at square one. After 20 minutes the score was 2-2 and both goalkeepers were very active. Montembeault faced 23 shots, Talbot 14.
There were a few incidents in the first frame where the second line was trapped in the defensive zone, the first time no damage was done, the second time it resulted in a Detroit goal and then, early in the second frame, this resulted in this that Patrik Laine received a holding penalty.
Montreal was able to erase the man advantage, but this second line of Alex Newhook, Dach and Laine still needs to play at even strength. If your top six aren’t great at defense, they need to be great at scoring. The Canadiens dominated the midfield and had ten shots on goal, while Detroit was only able to fire five on Montembeault.
For 40 minutes, the newly formed pair of Kaiden Guhle and Alexandre Carrier were very efficient, not allowing a single shot from the slot. A pretty efficient defensive pairing.
Less than two minutes into the final frame, Nick Suzuki turned the puck over but quickly retrieved it, but Hutson turned it over and this time the Canadiens couldn’t recover, Tyler Motte scored to put the Wings up 3-2 in leadership. The young blueliner was visibly annoyed as he hit the ice with his stick, but when he got to the bench, defense coach Stephane Robidas was right on him and visibly told him to forget about it and turn the page.
Not long ago, a mistake like that early in the third period would have destroyed the Canadiens’ confidence. Not tonight, though. A few weeks ago the panel in l’Antichambre said that a team needed a veteran at this position to step up and calm the nerves when that happened, but tonight it wasn’t an oldie who did that, it wasn’t anyone else Hutson .
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After a costly loss of the ball, he purposefully returned to the ice, grabbed the puck and released it full of confidence in the offensive zone. The message to the team is very clear: If a 20-year-old can do it and not let it get to him, then any player can do it. And that’s what they did, they shook off the third goal and Arber Xhekaj tied the game minutes later with his first goal of the season.
With the score tied at 3-3, Hutson controlled the puck in the offensive zone and forced Veleno into a holding penalty. Less than two minutes later, Laine scored the game-winning goal, his seventh goal and his seventh on the power play.
GM Kent Hughes said before the season that he didn’t want to keep Hutson in the NHL if he was going to be used as a power play specialist, but I’m confident he has no problem with Laine being one.
For the first time this season, the Canadiens put more than 30 shots on net and scored on a breakaway for the first time in a long time. It wasn’t a perfect game for the Canadiens, but it was one where the growth and improvement was clearly visible.
Both clubs now travel to Montreal and meet again tomorrow evening at the Bell Centre. Will Montembeault make its ninth consecutive start or will St-Louis be forced to give up a starting spot to Cayden Primeau due to the schedule?
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