The Montreal Canadiens emerged victorious in a gritty, come-from-behind contest against the Columbus Blue Jackets, winning in overtime 4-3. Cole Caufield netted the game-winner with 43 seconds remaining in the overtime period, his second OT winner in a week. In a matchup filled with high-danger scoring chances, controversial officiating, and more, here are three takeaways from the game.
Penalty Issues Still Harming the Habs
Coming into the game, Montreal led the league in penalty minutes-per-game (PIM/G) with 18.8. On Thursday night, they committed 17 minutes worth of penalties which albeit is below their season average, is still too many for a team that is 24th in penalty kill percentage (73%). Longtime Hab Brendan Gallagher took two penalties – both stick infractions -including one right before the third period ended, forcing the Canadiens to kill off a crucial penalty at the start of overtime (which they did in stellar fashion).
Head coach Martin St. Louis had this to say about Gallagher’s penalties, “Gallagher has been playing very good hockey recently. His penalties are often linked to combativeness, not laziness.” Yes, he plays a hard-nosed style of hockey that Canadiens fans have grown accustomed to since his career began in 2012. However, there is a fine line between combativeness and recklessness, and right now Gallagher – as well as the rest of the team – is falling more on the recklessness side. Cutting down their penalty rate can only lead to good things for this young Canadiens group, something that must happen in order for Montreal to stay competitive in the Atlantic Division.
Power Play Looked Much Improved
Much has been made about the lack of firepower the Canadiens’ power play has produced coming into Thursday night’s game, scoring just four times in 24 power play opportunities. Things seemed to have turned a corner in this game as the Habs scored not just once on the man-advantage, but twice. Their first power play goal came with 17 seconds left to go in the second period as defenceman and power play quarterback Mike Matheson fired home a wrist shot from the left circle to cut the deficit to one heading into the third period. The second one came with 12:12 to go in the third as Sean Monahan tied the game at three with a slick redirection off of a Caufield pass.
The puck movement within the zone was much more crisp than in previous games, allowing players to open up more passing lanes, ultimately leading to the Monahan goal. However, the most improved aspect of the power play has to be entry into the offensive zone. In previous games, too many times a Canadien would lose the puck because of clogged lanes that prohibited clean entry into the zone. The “drop pass” that has been utilized in seemingly every zone entry became so predictable that in the Habs’ previous game against the Devils, their penalty killers were intentionally taking it away. Against Columbus, there were plenty of times when the puck carrier would forgo the drop pass, dump the puck down low, and regain possession.
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Little tweaks like these can make an enormous difference for Montreal. According to Natural Stat Trick, they lead the league in goals-for-percentage (GF%) at 72.22%. That number is due to regress due to their much lower expected goals-for percentage (xGF%) sitting at 48.40%, but as of now they are producing extremely well at 5-on-5 play. Getting a boost from their power play makes this Canadiens team a bit more dangerous, but it will be intriguing to see whether they can build off this solid performance with the man advantage down the road.
Cole Caufield is a Bad Man
The Canadiens have a budding star blooming in front of their eyes and his name is Caufield. As mentioned before, his overtime winner Thursday night was the second game-winning-goal within the week, as the first gave Montreal a 3-2 victory against Washington on Oct. 21. He has racked up nine points in seven games so far (four goals, five assists) and has not even looked close to his best while doing so. However, he has been clutch in every sense of the word for Montreal, leading them to two victories early on with his overtime efforts.
The Canadiens will now face the Winnipeg Jets on Saturday, Oct. 28 in Montreal hoping to build off their come-from-behind victory.