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Hockey Hainsight
The Canadiens were in Nashville tonight, where they hadn’t won since 2018, and taking on a red-hot team that had won its last eight games. There were a couple of returns to the line-up for the occasion, Rafael Harvey-Pinard was inserted on the fourth line to play at center and Jayden Struble was also playing his first game since fearing a big injury. Still, even with fresh reinforcements, it was easy to think the Canadiens would be dominated on the night, but Martin St.Louis’ men had another scenario in mind.
The Predators had taken a two-goal lead within the first 25 minutes, the second goal made it look like the Predators were the Harlem Globetrotters doing anything they wanted to in the Canadiens’ zone. It was a flawless passing play that led to Nyquist’s 17th goal of the season. It would have taken much more than that to knock out the Canadiens. Josh Anderson and Jake Evans joined forces to allow Brendan Gallagher to unleash an absolute rocket from the top of the slot which found its way in the top corner of the net to cut the Predators’ lead in half.
Barely six seconds later, Nick Suzuki won the draw at center ice and David Savard shot the puck in the Preds’ zone off the boards, but it took a very weird bounce to end up in Saros’ empty net as the goalie had already made his way behind the net to handle the puck. Sure, it was lucky, but that’s how hockey works, you get some good bounces and some bad ones, the Habs were on the right side of that one.
The Preds took the lead 12 minutes into the third period, but it was short-lived as Joshua Roy scored the second goal of his young career to bring everyone back to square one. Two short minutes later, Michael McCarron thought he had just put the final name in his former team’s coffin, but his goal was waived off as he high sticked the puck in front of the net before shooting it in, meaning that everyone headed to overtime.
The Canadiens started the extra time on a power play and even though it had expired by the time the Habs scored, it gave them the edge they needed to set up the game-winning goal. Suzuki gave the puck over to Caufield and skated away on the wing while two Preds converged towards his winger. Caufield is not a one-trick pony though and he wisely sent the puck back to the captain who scored a one-timer from an awkward angle. A 25th goal on the season for Suzuki, his 61st point of the year, and the 100th goal of his career while Caufield’s two helpers tonight give him 50 points in 62 games. Every point Caufield gets now sets up a new personal best. Meanwhile, his center is fast approaching his best total ever, he’s only five points short with 20 games to go.
We’ve seen the worst of Brendan Gallagher quite a bit lately, but tonight, the alternate captain did what he did for so many years wearing the Sainte-Flanelle, and was the spark plug that gave his team the confidence it needed while also taking four shots on goal.
Juraj Slafkovsky also stood out for me in a couple of plays. Firstly, when he backchecked so quickly to stop a scoring chance and astutely dispossessed the Predators’ forward without taking a penalty. Secondly, once again because of not only his forechecking but because once he has forced the turnover, he has the ability necessary to know exactly what to do with the puck, setting up Cole Caufield for a great shot in the third.
On the blue line, I remember liking the fact that Xhekaj was finding ways to get his shot on net even if it was just with a hard wrister, but this year, he's unleashing rockets from the blue line that can do serious damage. That, and the toughness he brings are two reasons why I would keep Xhekaj on this team. Granted, they'll have more talented defensemen prospects graduating in the coming year, but you don't waste talent on the third pairing, you trade it to get more much-needed firepower.
Jake Allen signs his sixth win of the season and we’ll know soon enough if it will turn out to be his last for the Canadiens. The Habs will now head to the fourth stop of their road trip in Carolina and with four points out of a possible six, Martin St.Louis can already give himself a pat on the back and think it was a job well done.
Montreal Canadiens Blogger • 
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