Game 21: Montreal Canadiens @ Los Angeles Kings
Start time: **4:00 PM EST / 1:00 PM PST**
In the Canadiens region: TSN2 (English), RDS (French)
In the Sharks region: Bally Sports West
Streaming: ESPN+, RDS, TSN+
What should have happened in yesterday’s game between the Montreal Canadiens and San Jose Sharks was a fast start by the Canadiens to get out to a lead early to crush what little spirit the Sharks had after a dismal start to the season and coast to a victory. That would have allowed the ice time to be spread out evenly across all of the skaters, leaving the team as fresh as possible to face the Los Angeles Kings on Saturday.
Instead, the Canadiens played a sloppy opening period with little urgency, and found themselves down 2-0 approaching the end of the second. They were able to get a couple of goals to tie it up an get it to overtime, thanks to Johnny Kovacevic adding to Montreal’s league-leading tally of goals from its defencemen and Cole Caufield ending a six-game goal drought, and then win the game in a shootout. But to do that, Martin St-Louis made the decisions to play Mike Matheson, Justin Barron, and Kaiden Guhle for more than 25 minutes each, and held Michael Pezzetta and Jesse Ylönen on the bench for the entirety of the third period and overtime to play his top forwards for 20 minutes.
Now a team that was going to be dealing with the effects of fatigue no matter how Friday’s game played out heads to Los Angeles to take on the fourth-best team in the NHL with its top players the most drained of all. Yesterday’s win allowed Montreal to go two-for-two on the trip so far, but they’ve placed themselves in a very difficult position to extend that run to three.
| Canadiens | Statistics | Kings |
|---|---|---|
| 9-9-1 | Record | 12-3-3 |
| 46.2% (25th) | Scoring-chances-for % | 58.1% (2nd) |
| 2.85 (25th) | Goals per game | 4.00 (2nd) |
| 3.45 (25th) | Goals against per game | 2.50 (4th) |
| 18.7% (21st) | PP% | 21.4% (14th) |
| 72.8% (30th) | PK% | 88.9% (2nd) |
| 0-2-0 | Head-to-Head Record (’22-23) | 2-0-0 |
What Montreal should have done is what Los Angeles was doing in Anaheim at the same time. The Kings scored two power-play goals in the first period, added two even-strength tallies in the middle frame, and went on to a 5-2 win. The highest ice time among the forwards was Kevin Fiala’s 17:13, while Drew Doughty ended up more than three minutes under his season average, at 22:31.
In 14:31, Quinton Byfield scored his fourth goal of the season, continuing what has been a very good start for the second overall pick from the 2020 NHL Draft. The goal goes along with the 15 points he had amassed to that point of his breakout campaign.
Even with 16 points in 18 games, Byfield only ranks fifth on a team that is averaging four goals per contest this year. This is no longer a club that has to scrimp and scrape for offence as it used to, but getting back into Stanley Cup contention by adding an offensive element to the stalwart defensive play it’s more known for.
The lesson with Byfield (and the player who was selected first overall in 2020, Alexis Lafrenière), is that you need to have a bit of patience with your first-round picks, and the Canadiens are beginning to get rewarded for their approach with Juraj Slafkovský as well a quarter of the way through his sophomore season. A player two years less experienced than Byfield, Slafkovský is finding his own moderate level of offensive consistency, now with four points in his last five games. He was Montreal’s best player yesterday, and even got to see the ice in overtime along with an attempt in the shootout, which he just failed to convert.
The Kings’ win yesterday maintained their perfect record on the road, which was extended to 9-0-0. However, at home they’re just 3-3-3. Teams often experience a bit of a letdown in their first game home after a road trip, and if the Canadiens are going to take advantage of that, they will need a much better effort than what they put forth in San Jose, and Slafkovský will likely play a key role in it.
