On a very exciting day in Montreal, with Ivan Demidov signing his ELC, the Canadiens were hosting the Detroit Red Wings at the Bell Centre. Once again, the Habs showed up fashionably late for the game, being dominated 23-4 shots-wise in the first 20 minutes.
Ivan Demidov Signs His ELC
Jakub Dobes Got An Interesting Gift Following Ovechkin’s Record
Tyler Thorpe Earns a Contract
Matheson Mighty Struggles
Mike Matheson isn’t having his best season. That’s a well-known fact, and fans are well on their way to making him the new Patrice Brisebois, and on Tuesday night, he showed why. On the Red Wings’ first goal, the puck was sliding to him at the offensive blue line, and he couldn’t decide if he should skate to it and wait for it to get to him.
By the time he decided to go for it, it was too late. The puck was poked past him, and the Wings took flight on an odd-man rush that ended with the puck behind Samuel Montembeault. That’s not the hesitant play you expect from a seasoned vet like Matheson.
Minutes later, a shot deflected on him and nearly beat the goaltender, who had to be quick as a cat to avoid going down 2-0. However, he made amends during a penalty kill in the middle frame, blocking a cross-crease pass, and was solid for the rest of the game. Asked about the way Matheson handles adversity, Martin St-Louis explained:
I feel hockey is a game of mistakes. You’re trying to limit those, and I think the mentality we’re taking is “what’s next?”. You can’t do anything about what just happened; you move forward and focus on the next action, which is what he’s done. He’s a very important player for us; he logs in a lot of minutes. It’s another guy whose role kind of changed a bit this year. He embraced it, and he’s very valuable.
- Martin St-Louis on Mike Matheson
The Wings Did Their Homework
Detroit showed up knowing full well they were playing for their playoff lives, and it showed in their play. They came out strong in the first and were entirely ready to counter two of the Canadiens’ biggest weapons: Patrik Laine on the power play and Lane Hutson at all times.
On the penalty kill, they isolated Laine, forcing him to stand further out and making it easier for Cam Talbot to stop his shot, not that he managed to get a shot on target from there.
As for Hutson, the Wings pressured him just enough to rush him, but without fully committing themselves and leaving themselves exposed. There are times when he did manage to escape, but there were also occurrences of him turning the puck over because he rushed his play.
Still, at times, he managed to escape, including on a particular play in the third frame, where his twists and turns in the offensive zone allowed him to deliver a pass straight on Josh Anderson’s tape. The big winger didn’t score, but the Bell Centre was ignited, and minutes later, Anderson did score.
Montreal might have won the game, but the scoreboard doesn't really reflect how the game went down.
Montembeault Wins 30
On Tuesday night, Samuel Montembeault was astonishing. In the first period alone, he made 22 saves, and the only goal he surrendered was in an odd-man rush. At the night's end, the netminder had made 35 saves on 36 shots for a .972 save percentage. Not all of the shots he faced were dangerous, but enough of them were that if he didn’t play well, Montreal wouldn’t have won.
The timing for St-Louis to finally accept the importance of resting his goaltender was also great. Had he used Montembeault in the last back-to-back instead of allowing Dobes to get a start, he might not have been able to pull off that kind of performance.
The coach was asked if Montembeault is becoming an elite goaltender in the league, and he explained:
I think when you’re a number one goaltender on an NHL team, you’re an elite goaltender, but it takes a collective game in front of you to really look elite as well. We’re helping Mounty; we didn’t help him in the first, but we needed him in the first. If he hadn’t had that kind of period, we would have dug ourselves too deep a hole. Just like our team, Mounty is making tremendous progress, and he’s going through these moments because he deserves it.
- St-Louis on his goaltender
With Tuesday night's 4-1 win, Montembeault signed his 30th triumph of the season, it's the first time he reaches the milestone. It was also the first time since 2017 that the Canadiens won six games in a row.
Tonight was also a big night for Brendan Gallagher; his empty net goal was the 239th of his career, tying him for the 15th most prolific goal scorer in the team's history with Bob Gainey. However, Gainey did it in 1,160 games, while the alternate captain got there in 830 games. It was also his 21st goal of the season, giving him sole possession of third place in goals on the team behind Cole Caufield and Nick Suzuki, just ahead of Patrik Laine, who has 20.
The Canadiens will now have a much-needed and deserved night off. They played five games in the last eight nights, and the coach explained that at this time of the year, rest is a weapon that he needs to use.
Asked about the upcoming arrival of Ivan Demidov, the coach smiled and said, “You’ve all seen how exciting a player he looks”, but he added he doesn’t know when the kid will turn up. That being said, the youngster looks like he’s tailor-made to play under St-Louis and fans would no doubt be counting down the days if only they knew exactly when he will arrive. According to GM Kent Hughes, who spoke on TSN during the first intermission, Demidov will be there as soon as the work permit issues are resolved; I can’t imagine that will take very long.
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