First period
- We get Mike Johnson on the TSN feed tonight.
- Montreal’s defensive structure looks good to start, and it needs to to contain Kirill Kaprizov.
- After the first six minutes, you wouldn’t guess that this is the third-best team in the league versus its second-worst.
- The fourth line puts in a very nice shift, and now the top guys come out after the Wild had to spend a minute in their own zone.
- Mats Zuccarello takes a shot in the mid-section. He’s shift-to-shift with a mid-upper-lower-body injury.
- Minnesota is beginning to look like the better team, but they’re not getting many chances from it.
- Montreal has begun to attempt stretch passes again. That seems to be what they default to when the opponent begins to push. The Canadiens look very good when they work with short passes on controlled breakouts, and the coaching staff needs to remind them of that.
- Kaprizov tries to skate around Matheson. Matheson plays it perfectly, staying on his hip and knocking him to the ice.
- Montreal’s second shot comes with two minutes to play in the period. On a normal night, that would be terrible. Tonight, they’re playing well, and the Wild have just four shots on the other end.
- Hutson blitzes the puck-carrier and steals the puck, creating an odd-man rush, but Brendan Gallagher’s shot is blocked.
- That was a very good six-shot period. Montreal was committed to its defensive work, but still saw time in the offensive zone.
Second period
- Zuccarello is still not back, so the puck must have done more damage than most of us would like to think about.
- Montreal comes out with a shot, and then a drawn penalty. Time for Cole Caufield to go to work.
- No goal, but chances for both units.
- Jayden Struble carries the puck up the ice and sees that the forwards and changing, so he flips it in, chases it down, and gives his teammates time to swap out. A good play by him that maintains possession.
- Defensive-zone switches are logical and well-executed. I don’t know if that’s a change in the coaching or just the players doing the right thing in a game that requires it.
- Most of Montreal’s shots are coming from the blue line as the Wild protect the slot instead.
- If Lane Hutson had scored on this play….
- Most defenceman facing a stifling defence take point shots. Hutson does that.
- The first odd-man rush for the Wild in the game is broken up by Matheson on the pass attempt.
- Juraj Slafkovský gets knocked into Filip Gustavsson, and Gustavsson pounced on Montreal’s winger. The ref lets the Wild continue down the ice for a chance when the play should have been blown down (for the net coming off, and a roughing penalty for Gustavsson).
- Minnesota opens the scoring off he next faceoff. Hutson and Savard are unable to tie up stick on a three-way passing play.
- The goal has inspired the Wild to score another, but Montembeault makes a key glove save.
- Another man goes flying into the boards after light contact from Caufield. Is he just a lot stronger than he looks?
- Montreal goes into the intermission down a goal and being outshot 15-9. Still a pretty good period for them, just a couple of small errors to allow some dangerous chances for the Wild.
Third period
- The Minnesota Wild are going to employ the trap fro the final 20 minutes. Let’s see what Hutson comes up with to break it.
- Boldy buries Caufield at the side of the net, and that’s another Habs power play. There needs to be some urgency here with the way the Wild are defending.
- Montreal tries a drop pass to quick stretch pass, and it allows Dach to get in with some space. Keep that trick play in the book for later.
- Brendan Gallagher and Jakub Lauko gets their gloves in each other’s faces, and will sit in the box.
- Jayden Struble leads a three-on-two rush and tries to play the puck through his man’s feet, but ends up high-sticking him. It’s a four-minute minor. He’s had a good game, too. That’s tough for him.
- Josh Anderson makes a smart play to turn a fruitless offensive run into about 20 more seconds of killed power play by passing the puck back into his own zone. I think last year he would have just sent that on goal.
- The first minor is killed.
- The get the four minutes down to four seconds, but Marco Rossi finds the top corner to make it 2-0.
- As they’re announcing the goal, Guhle takes a stick in the face, so there’s a chance fro Montreal to get back in this.
- The second unit gets a little antsy to make something happen with the 17 seconds they receive, and go offside.
- Hutson now has a penalty for retaliating after a hit it looks like. One of the five roughing calls he will receive in his NHL career.
- Montreal has 43 seconds to score two goals.
- Despite Montreal playing him well all game long, Kaprizov still maintains his nearly two points per game average with the empty-netter.
- Montreal loses a game they played rather well by a 3-0 score. Hard to be upset about anything other than lamenting the penalties.
EOTP 3 Stars
3) He’s settling in with consistent playing time
2) The game may have played out differently with that call
1) Next year Ivan Demidov will be on the end of some of these plays
