First period
- I get a little nervous every time the puck enters Montreal’s zone now, which isn’t the feeling you’re going for. But the first shot goes wide of Cayden Primeau.
- Montreal is out to a 3-1 shot advantage, so the intensity is there to start.
- Lane Hutson touches the puck on a delayed icing, but Tom Wilson still throws a bodycheck. I saw an article yesterday about how he should be in the running for the Lady Byng.
- No penalty is given to Wilson on the play. so their power play operating at 7.4% goes to work.
- Josh Anderson is following Alexander Ovechkin around on the penalty kill like it’s Take Your Powerhorse to Work Day. More teams should have done that during his career.
- Alex Newhook made two good plays in the offensive zone that nearly ended up in a goal progress for him after a shockingly slow start.
- Lots of passes trying to set up goals for the power-play top unit.
- The second unit gets a point-blank shot from Oliver Kapanen in its 20 seconds of work.
- A long defensive-zone presence is the direct result of the members of the top line reacting to every pass rather than anticipating them. The puck stayed on the outside, but it’s not an effective way to play.
- Alexander Ovechkin makes a pass across to Aliaksei Protas on a two-on-one, but Primeau reads the play well. A rare case of an odd-man rush not becoming a goal.
- Kapanen plays his defensive shift well by pressuring the point man and staying in position for a breakout pass. The team needs more of that.
- I thought Kaiden Guhle was getting called for a hit at the horn, but it’s actually a high-sticking call against the capitals.
Second period
- Once again, the top unit spends about 90 seconds looking for the perfect goal.
- Guhle goes to the box for holding, Wilson opens the scoring off a pass from Ovechkin.
- There would have been a second goal 10 seconds later if not for Primeau. More breakdowns in the slot coverage.
- The next rush results in a shot off the crossbar. It could be 3-0 right now.
- Kirby Dach draws a penalty by driving through the centre of the ice. There are glimpses of his game coming around recently, but he needs to find more consistency.
- The drop-pass is slowly but surely exiting the power-play tactics.
- Protas scores on a two-on-one short-handed rush Cole Caufield just couldn’t quite get back into position to prevent the pass.
- There’s an offside challenge, which means it’s probably coming back.
- Another power play. Please start the Hutson unit.
- The top unit takes 60 seconds just to get set up with possession in the offensive zone.
- Caufield bails them out by ripping a shot past Charlie Lindgren’s glove. That’s 10 on the season.
- A “ref you suck!” chant goes up. Curse you for be able to count to six!
- On the shift after the goal, Lane Hutson fires a shot from the point that Brendan Gallagher tips in from the slot. A sudden turnaround in this game.
- The Capitals tie the game on a tip from the top of the crease
- Christian Dvorak has a shot blocked at the blue line, and three players chase Michael Sgarbossa back into the defensive zone. When Sgarbossa turns back to make a play, there are three Habs standing in the same spot with no one to cover. Seconds later, it’s 3-2 Capitals as Dvorak passes the puck to the front of his net.
- If St-Louis wants accountability, it’s time for Dvorak to sit. Forget about any ideas of trade value or showcasing. There might as well be a young player making these errors and learning from them.
- With the Capitals on a power play, Primeau makes a double pad stack to keep the puck out.
- David Savard executes a perfect seam pass against the flow to Nick Suzuki, and the captain powders a knee-down one-timer inside the post to tie the game.
- One last defensive-zone adventure for the top line, and the period ends.
Third period
- Some physical play features in the opening four minutes of the period. Two violent takedowns of Habs players go uncalled.
- In the fifth, the Capitals make it 4-3 as Connor McMichael was left all alone at the side of the net.
- It’s 5-3 seconds later. That happens too often. This is is a cross-crease pass attempt that got deflected in by a defender.
- It’s probably not the reason for the Canadiens losing the game, but the officials are allowing the Capitals to get away with some very obvious penalties in this period.
- Now they call a little hook on Brandon Duhaime. A power play is a power play I suppose.
- Dach is tripped by Wilson and gets called. He races over to bark at the ref. Lady Byng indeed.
- Hutson is out with the top players for the five-on-three.
- He sends two perfect passes to Caufield and Joel Armia, but the Habs top goal-scorer can’t convert.
- Two more chances for Caufield soon follow.
- Matheson has been relegated to the second unit for now, but we’ll have to wait for just a normal five-on-four to know for sure.
- Lots of quality chances on that power play, just no goals.
- Ovechkin makes it 6-3 following a TV timeout. That will do it for this game.
- That’s at least six goals against in three of the past five games, and five of the 11 played so far.
- Wilson lands a hit on Guhle after slingshotting around behind the net. Josh Anderson comes over with fists flying and scores the takedown.
- It’s a Capitals power play, but you take that one, even if it results in a goal at this point.
- It really doesn’t make sense how the penalty kill is so good at stealing the puck and launching counter-attacks and they don’t do any of that at five-on-five.
- The game ends 6-3. Habs drop to 4-6-1.
EOTP 3 Stars
3) Hopefully he can help stabilize things now
2) What was St-Louis saying about making the game easier for the other team?
1) This may have been the most upsetting part of this game
