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Looking to Reset | Habs Notepad

Chris G
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Looking to Reset | Habs Notepad
Marty St Louis, Montreal Canadiens (Photo by TVA Sports)

Habs News: NHL, Montreal Canadiens, Kaiden Guhle, Nick Suzuki, Anthony Richard, Laval Rocket, Trois-Rivieres Lions

Marty St Louis, Montreal Canadiens (Photo by TVA Sports)

ROCKET SPORTS MEDIA | LAVAL, QC. — On Saturday, the Montreal Canadiens hosted the Tampa Bay Lightning in the last 2023 home game at the Bell Centre. The Lightning had a commanding 4-0 lead through two periods before the Canadiens got on the board.

Kaiden Guhle deked two opponents before dishing the puck to Nick Suzuki at the side of the net for the one-timer goal. “Unbelievable play for him and keep it in, making a nice move and find me on the back side,” captain said about Guhle’s pass.

“I got the puck and made a couple of moves and gave it to Suzuki at the back of the net. It was the time of the game where you can take a chance and it worked out,” said the defenceman.

Tampa added one more goal in the third period to extend Montreal’s losing streak to three games in 5-1 victory. “I liked our first period. We had a good start and we got out of there losing 2-0. In the second period, we got five penalties and that was the game,” evaluated Martin St. Louis.

Costly Penalties

On Saturday, Montreal gave six power-play opportunities to Tampa Bay and the Lightning struck with two goals with the extra attacker. Indiscipline and paying the price for it has been a recurring theme for the Canadiens.

In the last four games, the Canadiens been shorthanded 22 times. The opposition has scored six power play goals in that stretch, giving Montreal a poor 72.7 percent success rate.

“I feel like we talk about it before every single game and as of late we’ve been taking way too many penalties and that’s got to stop. We’re wasting guys energy killing penalties and it’s hard to keep momentum,” Suzuki said on Saturday.

“You have to control your sticks, and not put the referee in the position that he might call that. Some are tough calls and it seems like we’re on the wrong side of that, but I think it’s on us too. It just can’t be the referees all the time,” answered St. Louis when asked to explain the root of the penalties.

Dried Up Offence

Since Sean Monahan was sidelined with a lower body injury that will keep him out of action for up to three weeks, St. Louis has been looking for solutions to replace him at center.

On Saturday, Kirby Dach was given another opportunity with Juraj Slafkovsky and Jonathan Drouin on the wings. The trio had a good night generating the team’s most scoring chances at even strength. One of the reason’s of their solid performance was that Dach and Drouin won seven of 12 faceoffs. They were not on the ice for any of Tampa Bay’s five goals.

Unfortunately for Montreal, the performance of this new line didn’t lead to a goal. In the last five games, the Canadiens have scored nine times. Cole Caufield has netted three of them.

St. Louis said that the team is generating chances but having trouble to finish lately. The amount of time on the penalty kill isn’t helping either.

During the stretch, Montreal has allowed the first goal in every game and been blanked in the first 40 minutes of each match. The Canadiens have won eight of 12 games this season when scoring first.

“I feel that in the last couple of games at home, we’ve had a bunch of chances early and just haven’t been able to score. Getting the first one is huge for momentum and winning games and we haven’t been able to do that lately,” added the captain.

Resetting on the Road

The Canadiens are headed on the road for a seven-game trip that is split in the middle with the Christmas break. As a result of two wins in their last eight games, Montreal sits at the bottom of the Atlantic Division.

“You never want to be down there, but it can only go up. We’re going to do that and try our best. There’s a lot of motivation in this group and we want to do well and win. I don’t think we’re going to take a step back, we’re going to bounce forward. We’re excited to go on the road for a few games,” Guhle said.

St. Louis said that it will be good for the team to go on the road where they have 7-6-2 record this year.

Before boarding the plane on Sunday to head to Arizona for Monday’s game, the Canadiens recalled Anthony Richard from the Laval Rocket and assigned Rem Pitlick to the AHL. Richard has 31 points in 27 games with Laval and leads the league with 18 goals. He was used in a top-6 role along with time on the power-play and the penalty-kill.

Rocket Split against Monsters

The Laval Rocket were in Cleveland for a pair of games against the Monsters. On Saturday, Laval had a 3-1 lead after 20 minutes and a 4-3 lead through two periods before collapsing and allow Cleveland to score four times in the third period in 7-4 loss. Special teams had a key role in the game as the Monsters scored three power play goals.

“I think they were opportunistic. We played a strong game for two periods but a hockey game lasts 60 minutes not 40. They put a lot of pressure on us that caused two goals,” coach Jean-Francois Houle said.

On Sunday, Joel Teasdale scored twice and Nicolas Beaudin recorded three points as Laval defeated Cleveland 4-1. The Rocket are currently on their best stretch of the season with three wins in the last four games.

“I’m happy with this win. We remained in control for the whole game and didn’t give them much. I’m happy with the guys effort,” Houle said. “We paid attention to the details, better on the faceoffs, less turnovers, and we scored at important moments.”

Laval concludes the four-game road trip on Wednesday in Syracuse before returning home to face the Wilkes-Barre Penguins on Friday.

(Quotes courtesy of BPM Sports)

Lions Lose a Pair

The Trois-Rivieres Lions hosted the Reading Royals for a weekend series at Colisee Videotron. On Friday, the Lions failed to capitalize on their six power plays as they were shutout 2-0 by the Royals.

“It took us a long time to get into the game. Our first period was decent, but the second was one of our worst in a long time. We only took three shots. We gave them life, however the guys bounced back and that gave us a chance to win this match,” general manager and interim coach Marc-Andre Bergeron said.

On Saturday, the game was tied 1-1 midway through the third period when Reading scored back-to-back power play goals. Trois-Rivieres was not able to recover as their losing streak extended to three games with the 4-2 loss.

“I thought we were getting traffic in front of their goalie, but it didn’t look like the puck was bouncing our side. However, we did not have much offensive possession time. It was limited there. It took us a long time to set up our offence. We had chances, but we lacked finishing,” Bergeron said.

The Lions host the Worcester Railers on Wednesday before heading on their Christmas break.

(Quotes courtesy of Le Nouvelliste)

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By Chris G., Senior Writer
All Habs Hockey Magazine
Copyright © 2022 Rocket Sports

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