First period
- The game begins with Max Pacioretty crunching Kaiden Guhle into the boards. It looks like Guhle’s chin hit the glass first. He’s just coming back after a concussion.
- Lane Hutson sets up Nick Suzuki about 10 feet from the net, but the captain’s shot goes wide. How many points would Hutson have even a quarter of his high-danger setups were converted?
- Montreal is looking goof to start, and a lot of that is thanks to more controlled breakouts from their own zone. No wingers sprinting away at the first sign of possession hoping for stretch passes yet.
- Just two shots on goal despite about three minutes of zone time so far.
- There’s a stretch pass … and an icing.
- Another stretch pass attempt, another icing. What was wrong with the controlled breakouts?
- Conor Timmins slips past Josh Anderson and opens up a quarter of the zone for himself to walk in and open the scoring.
- The first real error of the game, and it’s another costly one.
- Now the only breakouts the Canadiens are attempting a stretch passes. They’re not working at all.
- They might find a couple of shots to add to the Habs’ total in the intermission, but they currently sit at two. They lost their way after the opening minutes.
Second period
- The shot total is still at just two. But Toronto only has seven, so that’s a positive.
- The combination of the top line and top pairing gets two looks, and a shot that nearly fools Joseph Woll.
- They’re just no counting shots now for Montreal. They;ve had more than one to start this period.
- William Nylander glides right through all four defenders and beats Samuel Montembeault glove-side. Hutson got turned around attacking the puck.
- Dach puts pass right onto Suzuki’s stick in the slot, the captain once again flubs it.
- Cole Caufield draws a penalty, so there’s a chance to string a few passes together now at least.
- Montembeault has to freeze the puck following a Mitch Marner chance 12 seconds in the power play.
- Mike Matheson makes a poor drop-pass after already gaining the blue line, and neither Caufield nor Dach were expecting it (why should they?). The play goes the other way and it’s 3-0.
- Hutson’s unit gives the team some life. His one-time pass to Emil Heineman results in a juicy rebound for Brendan Gallagher to pound in.
- Nylander is learning that he can just slip his way right past these defencemen, and he nearly scored on a point-blank backhand. Montembeault made a big save.
- John Tavares gets a shot from the bottom of the circle, walks in, collects his rebound, and scores. 4-1.
- You know what will save the Canadiens? Stretch passes. That seems to be their theory.
- Montreal will have another chance on the power play as Alex Newhook is felled on an attack. Surely — surely — we will see Hutson with the top unit after Matheson’s role in the past two goals against.
- Well it is the second unit that comes out despite a TV timeout, so that’s still notable.
- Heineman runs interference, and that’s the end of the power play. They cut to an exasperated St-Louis on the bench.
- The Leafs are passing the puck through traffic like the Canadiens players aren’t even there. i’m not entirely sure they are there, either.
- Max Domi and David Savard grab each other and look close to coming to blows, but they never do. Both get roughing minors and we play four-on-four.
- All four Habs player focus on where the puck is, and that leads to about four chances in the final 20 seconds for the Leafs.
Third period
- One of Montreal’s best chances of the game is a close-range shot by Anderson, but he’s stopped.
- Hutson gets the puck right in the centre of the slot, but misses the net.
- St-Louis juggles the lines, and the response he gets is a positive one. the Arber Xhekaj-Jayden Struble pairing helps generate four quick chances.
- CBC mentions Pierre Houde winning the Foster Hewitt Award, but the camera shows the TVA Sports crew. We wish Houde did these Saturday night games.
- The puck is mostly in Toronto’s zone now. Score effects are at play, but they should have been in the second period as well.
- The Xhekaj-Struble pairing again helps generate offence. nothing fancy, just get the puck back toward the net quickly.
- Pontus Holmberg runs into Samuel Montembeault in the crease and Newhook jumps on top of the Leaf. Newhook is the one who goes to the box, for roughing.
- Matheson joins a three-on-one short-handed rush. The Leafs counter with their own three-on-one. Nobody was able to score.
- Montreal tries again short-handed, and there’s a back back that misses everyone to set up another Leafs three-on-one. They still can’t score.
- Slafkovský definitely needs a new batch of sticks. He’s just about out of these one anyway.
- Montreal ends with 21 shots, and loses a sixth game in a row, 4-1.
EOTP
3) “My college teammates used to score those all the time”
2) His poor brain can’t take much more of this
1) It’s hard to tell what they’re actually trying to do out there
