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Canadiens @ Flyers Top Six Minutes: Habs sweep a back-to-back

Credit: Eric Hartline-Imagn Images

First period

  • A nice early chance for the top line. Kirby Dach seems to be back on his game.
  • Lane Hutson clangs a shot off the post from the left side after getting around Nicolas Deslauriers. Seconds later, he gets another shot from the left side that rookie goaltender Alexey Kolosov has to squeeze.
  • Cayden Primeau denies Matvei Michkov for his first save. He prevented some Twitter discourse with that stop.
  • Dach dances across the front of his defender and gets a shot. the rebound spills to the side, but Cole Caufield can’t get there.
  • Sean Couturier makes contact with Dach’s head on a neutral zone hit. Arber Xhekaj goes over to speak with Couturier, and Couturier throws off his gloves first, with Xhekaj following. Nick Seeler races into to haul Xhekaj down before any fists are thrown. The refs get together, and give the only penalty to Xhekaj for unsportsmanlike conduct. An utterly ridiculous decision. Montreal should have at the very least come out of that situation with a power play.
  • Montreal kills off the penalty, Xhekaj very nearly sets up Joel Armia for a goal as he exits the box.
  • Nick Suzuki is left alone in front of the net on the next shift, and sends the rebound over Kolosov.
  • Hutson fans on his point-shot attempt and it leads to breakaway in the opposite direction. Fortunately the shot misses the net.
  • Kirby Dach is back to being himself. Juraj Slafkovský’s return might be as good as two players coming back when Dach goes back to 2C.
  • The play in the defensive zone looks better. Players aren’t just racing into puck battles, but holding station to see how those battles play out and adjusting accordingly.
  • Christian Dvorak gets a three-zone lob pass for a breakaway, but hits the post.
  • Travis Sanheim ties the game on a wrist-shot from the blue line that goes off Jake Evans.
  • Montreal now heads to the penalty kill as two excellent special-teams clubs butt heads once more
  • Anderson has two-thirds of the ice to himself for a breakaway, but can’t corral the pass, nor does he speed into the offensive zone to get the puck that ended up outside the trapezoid where Kolosov couldn’t play it. A double blunder on that play for a player who has otherwise looks good on the PK.
  • The Canadiens should be leading this game, but they head to the intermission in a 1-1 ties.
  • Tallying it up, I count two good periods versus the Islanders, one-and-a-half we’ll say versus the Rangers, all three last night versus St. Louis, and now that first period. So 7.5 of the past 10 periods that the team has played well in, minus the occasion momentary breakdown. I think this group will be fine.

Second period

  • Philadelphia tries to start the period with six skaters on the ice. Who know maybe this crew would have given a penalty to Montreal for not playing with enough.
  • Suzuki and Caufield go in on a two-on-zero. The pass to Caufield is slightly too far forward, but Caufield still manages to put it off the post. That’s two for Montreal now.
  • Defensive-zone presences are a lot shorter for Philadelphia, but they’re also not very good, so it’s hard to read much into that.
  • Right after typing that, the fourth line spent a long shift in their zone, and Oliver Kapanen wasn’t hard enough on the clear to allow his teammates to change before an odd-man rush came back his way.
  • Logan Mailloux shoots a puck at Brendan Gallagher, and that results in a goal.
  • First Dvorak fails to connect a pass to a wide-open Hutson at centre ice, then he goes offside on a three-on-two rush. A bad shift in multiple ways for a player the team has outgrown.
  • The Canadiens get a power play as Anderson gets high-sticked going to the net.
  • Dach plays the bumper role perfectly an deflects a pass over to Caufield, but the shot just misses.
  • The next Caufield shot is on target, and goes right through Kolosov and in.
  • That goal makes Flyers fans sad.
  • They almost got really sad, but Caufield’s shot on a breakaway went wide.
  • Gallagher breaks his stick on a pass, but it dribbles across in front of about seven players to find its target. Jake Evans absolutely hammers it into the net.
  • I’ve been saying it all season long, but this team just needs to get into the offensive zone and good things will happen.
  • Dach skates right through the heart of the zone through three players. He’s officially back.
  • Gallagher and Michkov gets tangled up at centre ice. The refs have a discussion to see how they can put Montreal in the box.
  • Instead the only call goes to Michkov, and I have to think that’s a makeup call for their debacle in the first period.
  • That period reflects the play much better, and the Canadiens now have 20 minutes to protect a three-goal lead. Preferably not exclusively in their own zone.
  • 8.5/11

Third period

  • Hutson picks off the puck at centre ice and gives Caufield a nice pass, but the puck goes off the side of the net.
  • Caufield has eight goals this season and could probably easily have 12.
  • I’m not sure what the Flyers’ plan was coming out in the third period, but Montreal has held all fo the possession so far. You can’t ask for better defence.
  • The Flyers are gradually beginning to gain more zone time, but not able to do anything with it.
  • Montreal just does the hockey equivalent of the mound visit by holding the puck behind their net for several seconds while the ref recovers from a hard fall in a scrum.
  • Montreal is getting into more of a shell now as the period reaches its midpoint.
  • Matheson sends the puck on goal looking for a rebound, but it’s the first stop from Kolosov in the game that doesn’t create one.
  • Not really the urgency the Canadiens, nor these Flyers fans, expected in this period.
  • They do get a break on a long stretch pass. They can afford one of those right now, but they really shouldn’t happen when you’re focused on defence.
  • They’ve tightened things up since that play.
  • Most of the Flyers fans have headed home to watch the Dallas Cowboys I guess.
  • With under two minutes to play, Sanheim adds a second goal. The one player who will escape Tortorella’s wrath tonight.
  • Philadelphia pulls Kolosev, and Travis Konecny makes it 4-3. Might be time for a timeout to settle everyone down.
  • The Flyers had a few chances in he final 90 seconds but can’t find a tying goal. That was closer than it should have been.
  • But a win’s a win I suppose. Habs win 4-3.

EOTP 3 Stars

3) He’s a career punch-per-game player

2) We’re all curious to hear what he says in this post-game

1) While Caufield continues to boost his goal total

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