The Montreal Canadiens hosted the Washington Capitals on Thursday night after losing their last four games, and to say Martin St-Louis’ men needed a win would be an understatement. After a red-hot start to the season, the Habs were dangerously close to being out of the playoff picture when the Caps came to town.
With the Habs having failed to score on their last 17 power play opportunities, all eyes were on the new look units that St-Louis didn’t have a chance to test against the Columbus Blue Jackets. As always this season, fans and media alike wondered which version of Samuel Montembeault would be in the net against the Caps and the best sniper in NHL history, Alexander Ovechkin.
Canadiens Top TSN’s Core-Four Under 24 Ranking
NHL Rumors: Should Canadiens Target Blues Forward?
Canadiens: Avenging Elimination
Goaltending Issues
While the coach is doing his best to show Montembeault that he trusts him, the issue is that the Becancour native doesn't trust himself. Once again on Thursday night, he allowed a goal on the first shot he faced. Granted, it was an Alexander Ovechkin slap shot, but still, it came from further out than his power play bullets typically come from. It’s common for a goaltender who has lost his confidence to allow a goal quickly because he overthinks it, and that’s not helpful.
For the first time this season, the coach actually pulled his goaltender during a period. After Montembeault had given up three goals on 10 shots, the bench boss had had enough. Not that he could do much on the second goal, which came on the power play with a guy all alone in the high slot, but he certainly could have stopped the third. It was a shot off the wing where there wasn’t much of an angle, and he touched it but couldn’t stop it.
Aside from the three goals he allowed, though, Montembeault has clearly been battling the puck lately. He rarely manages to freeze the puck right away; it’s almost as if each shot surprises him, and he pushes it back in traffic because he’s not expecting them. When you compare him to Jakub Dobes, it’s clear that the Czech netminder doesn’t put the puck back in traffic when he can’t freeze it; he deflects it to the side.
Mind you, after the second frame, Dobes had given two goals on 10 shots, which isn’t great either, but he still looked more confident out there. Asked about his goaltenders, the coach replied:
Can our goalies be better? Of course, I know they can be better. But we have to get the job done in front of them as well; we don’t have enough consistency. We’re not helping them consistently. It’s easy to point at the goaltenders.-
Pressed further about what the team could be doing better in front of the goalies, St-Louis almost lost his cool:
Can our goalies play better? Yes, they’d be the first to tell you. You want me to say I want more saves? Everyone wants more saves. Of course, the goaltenders can always be better, but I won’t lay everything at their door. Other things are happening on the ice, which means we can help them more.-
Asked to elaborate on what his players could do better, he answered:
Put pucks in deep, fewer turnovers, defend better, get the puck out when it’s around the blueline, take fewer penalties, block shots, put the puck on the sticks in front of the net, do you want more?-
Premiere Night
While everyone was curious to see if Zach Bolduc and Juraj Slafkovsky would make the most of their new linemates, it was actually a couple of fourth liners who scored the Habs’ first two goals.
Brendan Gallagher struck first with his first of the season on a power play, even though the review was necessary before it was allowed. It was Montreal's first power play goal in 19 opportunities and it was long overdue.
Then, in his 15th game with the Habs, Joe Veleno finally found the back of the net with assists from Mike Matheson and the good old Gallagher.
It's worth mentioning that Veleno had a pretty good night in the faceoff department as well, winning 60 % of his drafts.
Going Back In Time
I don’t remember seeing Martin St-Louis so disappointed after a game. He said it outright at the start of the media availability:
I’m disappointed it’s as if we’d gone back in time tonight, and that’s disappointing. Our good was good, but we shot ourselves in the foot, it’s as if we’ve regressed 13 or 14 months.-
It's hard to argue with what St-Louis was saying in a game where the Canadiens repeatedly shot themselves in the foot and ended up losing 8-4 (including an Ovechkin hat trick) to an older team that excels at feeding off an opponent's mistakes. The Capitals may not be as powerful as they once were but if you give them plenty of odd-man rushes, they will make you pay. They demonstrated that during the third frame when Lane Hutson, desperately trying to create some offense, turned the puck over up ice twice. The first three on one didn't succeed, but the other rush, which came what seemed like seconds later did.
Juraj Slafkovsky also reverted to trying cross zone passes that he cannot pull off, being guilty of a couple of turnovers in the process.. The Slovak just doesn't have the deceptive skills Ivan Demidov has and the sooner he stops trying to pull those off, the better. Alexandre Carrier, who normally plays a smart and safe game, was guilty of three giveaways
The coach then nuanced his affirmation, saying there were moments tonight that made him feel like his team had regressed, and that it was tough to watch some of these things. While the pilot anticipates that his team can grow from this, he warns that they’ll need to hear some truths to do that. Which probably means that when the players turn up in Brossard tomorrow, there will be a long video session, but unlike last week, I don’t expect this one to turn into an optional skate, not the way St-Louis spoke after the game.
Follow Karine on X @KarineHains Bluesky @karinehains.bsky.social and Threads @karinehains.
Bookmark The Hockey News Canadiens' page for all the news and happenings around the Canadiens.
Join the discussion by signing up to the Canadiens' roundtable on The Hockey News.
Subscribe to The Hockey News at THN.com/free. Get the latest news and trending stories by subscribing to our newsletter here.