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In Hainsight: Canadiens Hang Themselves in 5-2 Loss to New Jersey |
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Follow me @KarineHains for all updates about the Montreal Canadiens and women's hockey
The Devils are no longer a defense first team, they no longer have Martin Brodeur in net, but they can be dominating like never before. They’ve got skills, they’ve got speed, and they present a formidable test for any goaltender, but even more so for one who hasn’t played in over two weeks. Stil, this is the game in which Martin St-Louis decided to turn to Cayden Primeau and the young netminder handled the task pretty well even though the 5-2 score line doesn’t reflect it.
“Prime” as his teammate called him stopped 29 of the 33 shots he faced and made what could turn out to be the stop of the season, prompting the Bell Centre crowd to chant his name. Even though he surrendered four goals (the fifth one was in an empty net), he can hardly be blamed for the two power play markers and the one that happened just as Justin Barron was stepping out of the box. Overall, he looked comfortable in the net, but his technique was not quite on point. He ended up being deported to one side far too often, but that might have been down to first game jitters. It’s hard to say if Primeau will ever make it in the NHL but keeping him up as a third string goalie is not what he needs right now. Kent Hughes will have to choose a course of action and the sooner the better.
To be fair, the Habs made the game much more challenging than it should have been for the young goaltender. It was turnover galore on the ice and whichever way you looked; Montreal was coughing up the puck. Mike Matheson had a particularly tough night, committing four giveaways and even taking a fall worthy of Josée Chouinard at the Olympics in the early stages of the game. Thankfully, Primeau was there to fix his mistake and it allowed him to get into the game right away. The veteran defender partly made up for it with a beautiful goal in the third period, but it was too little too late. Nick Suzuki also struggled with four giveaways of his own and after six games he’s only got three assists to his name and a -4 rating.
Both Sean Monahan and Jake Evans struggled at the faceoff dot on the night with a 20% and 28.6% success rate respectively. The former was also guilty of a couple of costly turnovers in his own zone, a rather rare occurrence for the veteran.
All night long, the Canadiens looked like they were a couple of seconds late, they were never first to the puck and against a team as good as the Devils, you can’t afford to let them dictate the play. After winning three of the first five games, the Canadiens got a stern reminder that they are still quite far from being contenders. While it’s fair to say Montreal was playing a third game in four nights and taking on a team which was fresh and rested after three days off, this should not be used as an excuse. Taxing schedule comes with the territory in the NHL and this young team will have to learn to deal with it and perform no matter what.
For the second game in a row, Justin Barron opened the score for the Canadiens and he handled himself really well filling in for the injured David Savard on the first pairing. The young blueliner spent nearly 22 minutes skating alongside Mike Matheson and looked confident in both his abilities and decision making. This version of Barron is a big improvement compared to what we saw just a few weeks ago during training camp. Considering David Savard will now be out for six to eight weeks with a broken hand, Barron resurgence comes at the right time.
The Canadiens will enjoy a day off today before returning to action tomorrow night at the Bell Centre where they’ll welcome the Columbus Blue Jackets. Logic dictates that Samuel Montembeault should get the net, unless Jake Allen has impressed St-Louis enough to be anointed as the team’s number one goaltender of course…
Montreal Canadiens Blogger • 
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