For the tenth time in 31 games, the Montreal Canadiens failed to record 25 shots in a game. For a long time, it looked like they weren’t going to hit 20 shots for the sixth time, but they just managed to. Luckily for the Canadiens, and I do mean that in the colloquial sense, they happened to score on a whopping 30% of their shots.
Photo credit: hockeystats.ca Martin Jones is a heck of a goaltender, but he wasn’t sharp in Montreal, and he wasn’t helped by some bad bounces and good tips by both Habs players and his own, but to get him on a night like that was extremely fortunate, and you could tell from the Habs’ comments post game, aside from the coach, they knew this wasn’t a great performance by anyone other than Carey Price.
The game wasn’t quite as lopsided as it looked to the eye, at even strength anyway, with the Kings racking up 31 shot attempts in ten minutes of powerplay time, including 16 shots on Carey Price, all of which were stopped. On the Habs’ side, they managed two shots in 3:10 on the powerplay, and scored on both, including one four seconds into their first powerplay, a Jiri Sekac tip on a P.K. Subban shot.
At the point of that first powerplay goal, the Canadiens actually had the advantage in the possession game at even strength. They were ahead 7-5 in shot attempts, and 5-4 in unblocked shot attempts, but that was the end of the Canadiens playing the Kings even.
We already know that the Canadiens were dominated the rest of the game, we already know why, we go over those reasons almost every game recap, but even though there have been many wins this season where you end up feeling like watching the game is more of drag than a good time, this wasn’t one of them.
Maybe it’s because the Kings are the Stanley Cup champs, maybe it’s because there’ a bunch diving, interfering, cheap shotting, scuzzy players who think they’re above it all, but watching them get denied again, and again but Price and seeing every Habs chance somehow squeak through was both hilarious, and extremely fun to watch.
Maybe it was fun because Sven Andrighetto scored his first goal at the Bell Centre, with Elise Beliveau cheering him on. His third point in his third game made him the first Canadiens player in 38 years to accomplish that feat, the last being Pierre Mondou. Young Sven was clearly emotional in his post game interview, talking about how important was to score with the city in such an emotional state.
Maybe it was because Jiri Sekac broke out for two goals after struggling for the last little while, his second goal especially putting his excellent puck skills on display, finishing with a fantastic spinorama after Martin Jones took himself out of the play.
Maybe it was David Desharnais, split from long-term partner in crime Max Pacioretty, scoring his first 5-vs-5 goal since April 4th of last season, a span of 52 games that was clearly weighing on him.
Maybe it was Carey Price denying about eight shots that should have been goals on any regular human, and 44 overall.
No matter how you look at it, that game was a spectacle. Sometimes it’s good to just decompress and enjoy the result.
