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In Hainsight: A Much-Deserved Win |
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Follow me @KarineHains for all updates about the Montreal Canadiens and women's hockey
After 7 consecutive defeats, the Habs were reeling and really needed a win which they finally got on Saturday night, putting on a crowd pleasing performance in front of a packed Bell Centre. The 5-4 score line doesn’t really tell the whole story this time around, for once, the Habs played a much tighter defensive game, allowing just 22 shots and if Jake Allen had offered a better performance, they wouldn’t have had to come back from behind 3 times to claim the win.
However, the fact that they did have to was probably a good thing for team spirit, they had to band together to bail out a goaltender who has at times made them look much better than they were. You can also point out much better special team work as key points in this win, the penalty kill was much more aggressive and active, managing to neutralize two out of three penalties and even managing to cause the Blues to take a penalty of their own while shorthanded.
As for the power play, it struck once out of 4 occasions, but it generated many more chances. Caufield was robbed by a brilliant Binnington save, Nick Suzuki stroke iron once and if he wasn’t going through a dry spell right now, the puck probably would have struck the inside of the post and gone in and overall, there was good puck movement, and the man-advantage was much less predictable. Jonathan Drouin is starting to look comfortable at the point, even though he doesn’t have a booming shot to unleash, Cole Caufield didn’t systematically go for his patented one-timer and changed the angle to surprise the penalty killers at time and Kirby Dach was tenacious in his puck battles.
Meanwhile, for a second game in a row, Joel Armia found the back of the net and this time around he did it twice. The line he formed with Jake Evans and Evgenii Dadonov was remarkable on the night, perhaps because both Armia and Dadonov have been scratched lately and realized that they needed to play a more committed game to be in the line-up. They played a tight game in their own zone, creating turnovers which in turn allowed them to get on the attack. Both Evans and Dadonov finished the night with a pair of assists on those Armia goals.
The game-winning goal was scored by Josh Anderson who pushed the puck over the line as it was slowing sliding in thanks to Jonathan Drouin’s hard work. Yes, I said it, Jonathan Drouin’s hard work. The Quebecer hasn’t scored in over a year, and he was initially given the goal, but the league revised it and gave it to Anderson. Even though it didn’t mark the end of his dry spell the role he played in that win should do wonders for Drouin who’s got to start thinking about his future as he’s in the last few months of his 6-year 33 million contract.
It wasn’t a perfect game though, even if the Habs defensive game was better as a whole, they still had 16 giveaways, one of which was a juicy one in their own zone from Xhekaj that lead to a St-Louis goal, but every time they made a mistake, they bounced back. That was the difference between that game and their wretched losing streak, they looked like they had the confidence to pick themselves up the floor and fight back.
This win coupled with the much-improved effort against the Rangers on Thursday should give Montreal something to build on. The Canadiens will be back in action on Monday night against the Kraken before hosting the Predators for the P.K. Subban homage night on Thursday.
Montreal Canadiens Blogger • 
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