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Bottom Six Minutes: Mike Matheson and Kaiden Guhle steal the show

Nov 18, 2024; Montreal, Quebec, CAN; Montreal Canadiens defenseman Kaiden Guhle (21) blocks a shot from Edmonton Oilers forward Zach Hyman (18) during the first period at the Bell Centre. Mandatory Credit: Eric Bolte-Imagn Images

Monday night saw without a doubt the best game that the Montreal Canadiens have played this season. Taking on a dangerous Edmonton Oilers squad, they dominated five-on-five play, and got a helping hand from Samuel Montembeault to earn the shutout win. But this wasn’t the goaltender robbery that you would expect from these Habs. As important as that was on the penalty kill, they legitimately earned this win as a team.

A big part of that was the pairing of Mike Matheson and Kaiden Guhle, who turned in by far their best performance of the season, all while facing the Oilers’ top line for most of the night.

After taking a shot to the hand from Evan Bouchard, Guhle left the game in the first period and gave the team a bit of a scare. He would surprisingly be back on the bench for the second period, and would go on not only to score the above goal, but look better than he has in any other game this year. Whether there are any lingering effects from that shot block remains to be seen, but he didn’t show any signs of a problem through the remainder of that game.

Matheson, for his part, assisted on Brendan Gallagher’s marker to open the scoring late in the second period, and was a steady presence for the Habs all night. He has been the target of some deserved criticism of late, but this marks two very solid games in a row for him, and easily his best outing of the season while staring down the best player in the world for most of it.

As a pairing, they held an excellent 83.5% share of expected goals, and this while playing the vast majority of their five-on-five minutes against none other than Connor McDavid. They blocked shots, used active sticks to frustrate the Oilers defensively, and most importantly, they were surgical with their movement of the puck in transition. They didn’t just hang on for dear life against McDavid, they were actively looking to take the play to his end and force him to play defence.

In the early goings of the game, it felt like they were content to sit back and allow the gaining of their zone, looking simply to mitigate the damage. As the game went on, that changed, and they started finding ways to move the puck up ice and attack. By the end of the third period, McDavid wasn’t even getting opportunities at five-on-five anymore, he was forced to play 180 feet away from where he wants to be.

It is no coincidence that when Matheson and Guhle had their best game, so did the team. If they can replicate this kind of performance moving forward, the team will look very different than they have early on this season.

Click the play button below to listen to your full Bottom Six Minutes, also available wherever you get your podcasts. The Habs have the rest of the working week off, so we’ll return when they do on Saturday night against the Vegas Golden Knights.

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