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Top Six Minutes: Canadiens lose focus as Maple Leafs score seven unanswered goals

The Habs were the victims of some bad luck, but they made some of that themselves.

Credit: David Kirouac-Imagn Images
  • Ottawa beat Boston in a shootout earlier today. That means (a) no ROW, and (b) both teams moved to 50 points on the season, the same total Montreal can get to with a win tonight.

First period

  • The third line (that Evans’s line) starts the game with energy, the top line takes over with a lot of energy looking for the opening goal.
  • Mike Matheson has a give-and-go with Brendan Gallagher versus Toronto’s fourth line, but Joseph Woll makes the save on the backhand shot.
  • Jake Evans gets lost right at the top of the crease and Woll needs to make another key save.
  • Montreal tries the same play again. This time it results in a power play as Kaiden Guhle is hooked on the doorstep
  • …Or it would have if the Habs hadn’t just keep playing and set up Kirby Dach in the slot for a goal.
  • Dach made a senior fan’s day by giving him a high-five through the glass.
  • Guhle received the primary assist on the play after being denied of the goal to start it all off.
  • I think it’s safe to say the ice is better tonight than it was in the last game at the Bell Centre on Saturday.
  • The fans groans as the ref’s arm goes up with the puck in Montreal’s zone, but it’s because Bobby McMann hooked the hands of Lane Hutson behind the net.
  • It’s Laine time.
  • The top unit can’t get set up, so out comes the second.
  • Passes are just a little bit off on the power play, which is odd considering how they were zipping it around in the opening minutes.
  • The power play may have actually halted Montreal’s momentum.
  • The Suzuki line is really buzzing. First and foremost, their outworking the Leafs, and that lets their skill shine.
  • Caufield gets a chance on a down Woll, but he wasn’t out, leaving his pad near the post to deny Montreal’s top goal-scorer.
  • A snippet from our Slack chat:
  • Auston Matthews goes to the box for four minutes after a little captain-on-captain violence.
  • They still can’t gain any space in the offensive zone to set anything up. Toronto is defending well.
  • Part of the problem is trying to force passes through lanes that the Leafs have locked down.
  • They don’t prevent a pass to Laine standing in the circle, however, and Woll has no chance to stop that one.
  • Another primary assist for Hutson.
  • Before the Leafs can even reflect on that latest goal against, Josh Anderson adds another.
  • Another assist for Alexandre Carrier on that one.
  • Ryan Reaves tries to spur his team by trying to get Arber Xhekaj to fight. The Sheriff doesn’t oblige, instead telling him to go score a goal if he wants to help his club, and shooing him away.

Second period

  • It looks like Montreal isn’t content to score just three tonight.
  • He asked for it, and Reaves got the full force of Arber Xhekaj with a neutral-zone hit.
  • Caufield steals the puck, drives, and pulls it across the front of Woll, but the goalie makes another great save.
  • Without Woll’s effort, Montreal might have seven goals right now.
  • The Leafs are trying to hit now. Good. That’s a much less effective style for them than focusing on offence.
  • Juraj Slafkovský goes to the box for high-sticking as Toronto gets a chance to pull one goal back.
  • Christian Dvorak has half a zone of space to load up a shot. It ricochets off the crossbar so hard that it creates a two-on-one for Toronto. The Maple Leafs’ best player tonight, McMann, keeps and scores on the sudden swing in play.
  • I don’t know which hockey god decided the Leafs needed a bounce in this game.
  • Woll makes another tough save of Caufield. Caufield is going to get one at some point tonight.
  • The Leafs have strung two shifts of offensive-zone pressure together. Montreal needs to re-engage.
  • Craig Berube is putting his best players together trying to have the Leafs generate a goal of their own accord.
  • Pontus Holmberg decides to become the best forward who’s ever played and dances his way through all five Habs defenders, drawing a hold from Hutson at the end.
  • Cuthbert and Simpson are amazed Max Pacioretty could skate off the ice after taking a shot to the face. We know all about the Wolverine’s healing abilities.
  • The stick of William Nylander is left unchecked by the pairing of Guhle and Carrier, and just like that it’s a one-goal game.
  • Not the period Montreal wanted, even it was really just a bad bounce, a couple of bad shifts, and a fit of madness from a bottom-six player that were the difference for Toronto.
  • At least the Sportsnet panel will have something to talk about in the intermission.

Third period

  • A shot from Anderson off shin pads begins the period, and William Nylander jumps on the puck, goes the other way, and ties the game. Montembeault guessed left, Nylander went right and had the full net to shoot at.
  • Now Dvorak can’t contain Nylander and takes a holding penalty. Toronto will have a chance to take the lead.
  • Even the zone exits on the penalty kill are poor right now. You never see the Habs turn the puck over right outside the blue line.
  • Montembeault makes a critical glove save on McMann on a slot from the slot.
  • Oliver Ekman-Larsson puts the Leafs ahead. What a collapse from Montreal.
  • I guess they need to head back out on the road.
  • David Savard is off to the box for holding the stick of David Kampf. This is getting away from Montreal.
  • That’s more like what we expect from the penalty kill. Jake Evans is hauled down on an offensive rush to send the game to four-on-four.
  • Montreal’s defencemen can’t decide if they want to play the body or the puck, and are ending up doing neither versus Toronto’s most dangerous players.
  • It’s been a long time since we’ve seen the Canadiens look this bad.
  • And very suddenly a puck gets to the Toronto crease. It goes right through Woll’s pads, but somehow stays out.
  • And Auston Matthews makes it 5-3 moments later on a fluttering shot that just goes over Montembeault’s pad.
  • Caufield is, once again, robbed. His eighth shot of the night.
  • Mitch Marner trips up Carrier as he tries to get to a loose puck on the boards. The ref just decides not to call it.
  • Steven Lorentz is completely unmarked in the slot, and makes it 6-3.
  • David Savard’s point shot rebounds right to Suzuki. Woll dives across and the puck goes off the knob of his stick. Woll gets across and makes another save on the opposite side.
  • Montreal just wasn’t meant to win this game.
  • Montembeault goes to the bench with four minutes remaining because, despite being down by three goals, the Canadiens are still getting great chances.
  • Gallagher can’t lift a point-blank chance over Woll’s toe as he lays prone on the ice.
  • Montreal gets a power play to at least try to make the score more respectable.
  • Instead, Matthew Knies sends the puck off the leg of Suzuki and in to make the final score 7-3.
  • Ultimately this game is just a loss of two points, as long as this style of play doesn’t carry into the next two home games.

EOTP 3 Stars

3) Let’s just remember that and forget those last two periods

2) This does seem to be the issue

1) It is known

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