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Hockey Hainsight
The Canadiens lost to the Penguins in the longest shootout in their history last night.
All too often this season, the Canadiens have struggled in the first period. Of their 73 goals, only 14 had come in the first frame, but last night, Montreal came out strong or at least, David Savard came out strong. The gritty defenseman took his team’s first three shots of the game, scoring on his second. Six minutes later, Jayden Struble followed suit, scoring his first home goal to make it 2-0. Pittsburgh got on the board about a minute and a half later when the Penguins captain dispossessed the Canadiens’ defense before feeding O’Connor and pouncing on his rebound to cut Montreal’s lead by one. The Habs quickly restored their lead with a Sean Monahan power play goal, probably the easiest of his career when he only had to give a nudge to the puck after Matheson’s shot got through Nedeljkovic but slowed to a near halt by the goal line. After 20 minutes, Montreal was ahead 3-1 and looking like the favorite to pocket the two points.
However, Martin St-Louis’ men shot themselves in the foot in the 2nd, taking three penalties which resulted in a couple of power play goals by the visitors while the Habs only took seven shots in the period. After that extended nap, Montreal put its working boots back on for the 3rd, dominating shots 11-3, but Nedeljkovic was on his game and stopped them all. Late in the period, Pittsburgh took a penalty, giving the Canadiens a golden opportunity to close the books, but the Tricolore’s power play failed to make a difference, just like in the overtime when Malkin was assessed two minutes for tripping Cole Caufield.
On to the shootout they went, and it took no less than 12 rounds to put this one to bed. In the Canadiens’ longest shootout ever (the previous record was 10 rounds against Buffalo back in 2011), Suzuki, Caufield and Monahan scored while Crosby, Letang, Eller and Harkins beat Samuel Montembeault to get the extra point. Nevertheless, fans at least left the Bell Center happy with the show they got.
In his postgame presser, St-Louis said he was disappointed his team failed to protect the lead, but he wasn’t surprised. When you shoot yourself in the foot that much (the NHL statistician gave the Canadiens 15 giveaways) means you are leaving the result up to luck. According to the bench boss, some of that comes down to youth and the inability to keep things simple and remain in control of the game. To do that, the players need to have more awareness of where the team is at, they need to realize things are getting away from them and need to be simplified, they’re not doing that so far, but St-Louis sees it as part of a young team’s growing pain. He called the game hard to coach emotionally, a succession of impressive plays, but followed in short order by costly mistakes.
Right now, the Canadiens’ defensemen are tied with Colorado’s blueliners for most goals scored by the rearguards since the start of the season and St-Louis mentioned he finds it surprising, but he’s clearly pleased by it since today’s game calls for four or even five players attacking together. Montreal will have a couple of nights off before finishing off this long stay at home sequence with a tilt against the New York Islanders on Saturday night.
Montreal Canadiens Blogger • 
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