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In Hainsight: Was Suzuki Naughty? |
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Follow me @KarineHains for all updates about the Montreal Canadiens and women's hockey
With hardly any practice time in the last couple of days, Martin St-Louis took a surprising decision and shuffled his top 3 lines, for the first time of the season Suzuki and Caufield were split up and looking at the line-up, I couldn’t help but wonder if Suzuki was on Santa St-Louis’ naughty list, or if he hadn’t checked his list twice because the team’s top scorer found two lumps of coals in his stocking instead of his usual side of Cole. These were the lines used:
Caufield-Dach-Hoffman
Drouin-Suzuki-Armia
Slafkovsky-Dvorak-Anderson
Pezzetta-Evans-Richard
Perhaps St-Louis is attempting to jump start Armia and Drouin by giving them the best center but at this stage, it kind of looks like it would take a Christmas miracle for them to find the back of the net. After 2 periods of play shot attempts when Suzuki’s line was on the ice were 16-5 Dallas and the Habs’ expected goal percentage stood at a measly 2.43%. To say that the experiment wasn’t working would be an understatement, and yet, the line stayed together for the 3rd period as well.
If it seems like nothing will get Armia and Drouin scoring, Jake Evans finally got his first of the season on a breakaway on a power play with assists from Pezzetta and Harris. The goal happened with 2 seconds left on the man-advantage, so personnel change had already happened in readiness of being back at even-strength. Pezzetta also got himself a goal in the second period, but he spoilt his night with a silly penalty on the 3rd which allowed Dallas to take a 3-2 lead.
Pezzetta wasn’t the only one at fault when it came to indiscipline though, Dallas scored 3 goals on the power play. Right now, the Canadiens are leading the league in penalty minutes and yet, their penalty kill is atrocious and insanely passive…it’s not for lack of opportunity to practice it let’s face it.
In the end, Montreal lost 4-2 on a night where they finally got some secondary scoring but where the primary scoring was MIA. Considering these new lines had hardly any time to work together though, it’s hardly surprising. When I saw the lines, I did wonder if Christmas was coming soon or if it was April’s fools’ day.
The Habs will now fly back home for a much deserve Christmas break and be back on the ice for their next game in Tampa on December 28. If you are celebrating Christmas in the next couple of days, I hope you have a wonderful time, be merry, be happy but stay healthy and be careful on the roads. I’ll be heading up to Québec City tomorrow and I’ll admit I’m dreading the long drive on icy roads, but after 2 missed Christmas because of Covid, I’m not missing this one. Have fun everyone and merry Christmas!
Montreal Canadiens Blogger • 
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