There comes a point in an NHL season when followers of a sub-par club need to extrapolate moral victories from official defeats in the record books. Said moment has arrived for the Montreal Canadiens. They were in New York on Saturday afternoon to play the Rangers and lost 4-3. No points for their efforts, and the mistakes were sometimes brutal, but it’s also hard to claim they played poorly. Let’s discuss.
Canadiens Fight Back, Literally
This was a good old hockey game. The type of match that appeals to the NHL fan with a penchant for salty hits, angry glares, and enough post-whistle extracurricular activity to inspire a documentary film.
Frankly, this was predictable for a few reasons. First, the Canadiens and Rangers are old rivals. They’re Original Six franchises. The stories between these teams are the stuff of legend. Second, New York took the boom stick to Montreal on Oct. 22 at the Bell Centre courtesy of a 7-2 hammering. Third, both teams were struggling. Montreal for all the reasons we’ve analyzed since the campaign began, and New York because they had lost five straight.
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Lastly, trouble always finds Jacob Trouba, sometimes warranted, sometimes not. “Trouble” Trouba. Thus, at 1:58 of the opening period, Trouba and Josh Anderson danced the dance of gladiators on ice. It was a two-parter, as after swinging around for a few seconds each lost their grip on the other’s equipment and parted but were far from done and went at it again. Who was sending a message to spark their team? Under the circumstances at the time, arguably each was.
There was more tension in the second period when the Rangers’ Sam Carrick opted to take Arber Xhekaj’s jersey and pull it over his head. To his credit, the Montreal blueliner didn’t bite.
Fans really got their money’s worth at the tail end of the middle frame. New York netminder Jonathan Quick corralled the puck at 18:34 for a whistle. He was surrounded by players, friends and foes: Adam Fox, Ryan Lindgren, Brendan Gallagher, Kirby Dach, etc. Somebody shoved someone else a little too hard, which caused the boiling water to spill over. Quick punched Dach, Juraj Slafkovsky head-locked Lindgren, and Xhekaj went after Brett Berard; it was a madhouse.
The Canadiens aren’t especially good this season but let no one argue they let other teams push them around.
Nice Things Can’t Happen to Montreal
For every positive aspect of the matinee mele for the Habs, there was a counterpoint.
Consider that Mike Matheson was back in action after missing a pair of dates with an injury. He was instrumental in keeping the ship afloat. After falling down 1-0 via a screened Artemi Panarin power play goal, Montreal evened things up through Matheson later in the first stanza thanks to a mighty wrister in the slot. He also finished the day with a plus-3 rating and had an expected goals for percentage (xG%) of 71.89%.
It’s small wonder that of the Canadiens’ two veteran defenders, Matheson and David Savard, the latter’s name is whispered as potential trade bait. This is no shade on Savard, a trooper, but Matheson looks like he’ll be key to whatever stabilization operation head coach Martin St. Louis is trying to juggle.
Furthermore, Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield scored. Both did so in the third period when the team trailed 3-1, and each assisted on the other’s marker. Short of winning the game, there is nothing else one can ask from the two most prominent figures on the roster. If they’re playing well, the team has a chance, and that it did on Saturday.
But we can dance around the negatives no longer. Montreal didn’t win. And the reason it didn’t win was painful. Vincent Trochek gave the Rangers a 2-1 lead by netting at 19:56 of the first period. If that wasn’t bad enough, the game-winner, off Kaapo Kakko’s stick, was at 19:36 of the third period. Do you want more detail? It was a power play goal. Do you want even more? The much-maligned Kirby Dach was the Hab sitting in the sin bin.
Oh, and it looks like Cuylle trips Jake Evans earlier on the play.
Those present for post-match media availability had interesting reports, such as St. Louis repeating the same sentence in both official languages:
“I loved our game but I’m not going to talk about the refs.”
Said reports are accurate, as per the club’s official social media stream of the post-game interviews. St. Louis’ segment is at the 10:18 mark.
Breathe in, breathe out, Canadiens fans. It’s very important to remember to breathe.
The Joshua Roy Non-Effect
On Monday (Nov. 25) the Canadiens called up forward Joshua Roy from their American Hockey League (AHL) affiliate, the Laval Rocket. This got some fans excited. His name has been bandied about by some (including The Hockey Writers) as potential support to give the club a jolt.
The contest against the Rangers was his third after suiting up versus the Utah Hockey Club (Nov. 26) and the Columbus Blue Jackets (Nov. 27). He was slotted on the left alongside Dach and Josh Anderson on Montreal’s third line. He had the fewest shifts of all the players (15), and an xG of 0.02, although the line itself, in only 5:14 of ice time, had an xG of 0.388, which was second-best on the team.
Is Roy’s presence making a difference? Well, he hasn’t registered a single point, which is disappointing. Conversely, in the two games Montreal lost, he had an even rating. The double-irony is that he was a minus-1 when the Canadiens defeated the Blue Jackets. The jury is still out as to whether sending him over from the Rocket was a good idea. It’s early days.
The Canadiens don’t have time to let this one fester. They’re in Boston on Sunday afternoon to play the Bruins. It will be the Bruins’ official centennial match, having played its first-ever game on Monday, Dec. 1, 1924, against the then-Montreal Maroons, a 2-1 win. It might be for the better. Just take away the positives from this one, of which there were a few. A brilliant opportunity to crash the party awaits at TD Garden.
