First period
- Martin St-Louis gets Brandon Gignac in the starting lineup to begin his first NHL game in several years. He spends most of it in his own zone, but he had that one out of the way now.
- You can really hear the puck hitting the sticks in a very quiet Capital One Arena. I think the fans have realized they’re probably going to miss the playoffs yet again.
- Cole Caufield steals the puck, carries it into the zone, and sends a saucer pass over a defenceman doing his best David Savard impression and right onto the stick of Nick Suzuki. The captain slapped the puck far-side, giving the Habs a 1-0 lead, and Caufield a well-deserved 10-game point streak
- Now Suzuki picks up a deflected puck and slings in his second goal on the same shift.
- Spending all that time with the NHL’s elite point-producers clearly rubbed off on Suzuki because he just added a second goal. After watching the accuracy shooting in the skills competition, maybe he stole Leon Draisaitl’s shot.
- If the Canadiens hold a multi-goal lead, but the other team has no interest in trying, does the multi-goal lead stand?
- Michael Pezzetta loses an offensive-zone draw, but Rafaël Harvey-Pinard tracks the puck down and gets ti to the slot, where Pezzetta pulls it to his forehand and scores. It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish.
- Suzuki’s pass for a third point of the opening period goes right through Josh Anderson.
- Kaiden Guhle fires a shot right off the elbow behind new Capitals goaltender Darcy Kuemper. That was another excellent pass across from Caufield.
- With 2.7 seconds on the clock, Caufield picks up the puck off a faceoff win and just wings it off Kuemper’s blocker. An exceptional period for him, and he’s already taken care of the point streak aspect.
- The Canadiens allowed five shots in that period. It was less about their defensive play and more about the Capitals not actually wanting to be here.
- Caps head coach Spencer Carbery was just seen fleeing from Montreal’s dressing room after rummaging for St-Louis’s intermission speeches.
First intermission
- Speculation in our Slack channel is that Suzuki is determined not to be the only member of the top line to not make his country’s Olympic team.
Second period
- Tanner Pearson nudges T.J. Oshie, who slides into the net. The Habs forward is off to the box.
- I didn’t know there was a facemask penalty in the NHL, but the Canadiens are going to a power play on it.
- The puck movement is still there, but Pearson is no Sean Monahan.
- Not one of the six players wearing Canadiens jerseys on the ice pays any attention to Alexander Ovechkin, and he’s free to fire his 10th goal of the season into an empty net. Just five more for him to catch Suzuki.
- Jaydeb Struble did not think much of Beck Malenstyn getting in the face of Samuel Montembeault after the play.
- Pearson goes to the box for a second time in the period. Just cementing the fact that he’s no Monahan.
- Max Pacioretty’s shot from the cicle is saved by … David Savard, with his back to the shot. That would have been another empty-net goal otherwise.
- It has been mostly Capitals this period. That’s what happens when you try against a Habs team up several goals.
- After the close call, the Canadiens have turned the switch back on.
- But Washington takes control right back, hemming the fourth line in its own zone for well over a minute. In the end, RHP, Matheson, an Guhle were out for 2:45, but neither allowed a goal nor took a penalty.
- Suzuki just missed his hat trick again. Is he doomed to never score one in his career?
- Joel Armias just executed a little one-hand hook turn to sprint in on goal and hit the post. One of those glimpses of top-end talent he teases us with every half-dozen games or so.
- Shots were 16-4 in that period for Washington. I guess they decided they wouldn’t mind winning after all.
Third period
- The period starts with the top line eager to score a goal. They don’t manage to do it, but little about their second period could be described as “eager.”
- Washington had a short-lived flurry of shots, but now the teams are just trading giveaways in the neutral zone.
- We’ll have a little four-on-four with some coincidental roughing minors to Anthony Mantha and Johnny Kovacevic.
- The four-on-four benefited the Canadiens, and it’s Juraj Slafkovský who gets the goal while playing with Jake Evans following a Caufield-Suzuki shift.
- This is why everyone’s always telling him to shoot.
- Mike Matheson sets a career high with 35 points with the secondary assist, the first goal of the night for Montreal that involved more than two players.
- The three-goal lead is the worst lead in hockey. Rasmus Sandin makes it 4-2 on a faceoff-win one-timer.
- John Carlson hits the post looking for his team’s third goal.
- Off a turnover, Samuel Montembeault has to come up with a big stop on tom Wilson in tight. The goalie loses his helmet in the process, stopping play.
- Montreal needs some more four-on-four.
- Mantha goes after Kovacevic again with a high hit. Kovacevic doesn’t respond, so that’s a Habs power play.
- Shoot the puck more, Slaf.
- Both Suzuki and Slafkovský are now on hat-trick watch.
- They’ll have to settle for their two apiece, and a 5-2 road win.
EOTP 3 Stars
3) A perfect 13th forward
2) Is this the first time one of our members actually witnessed a win on the road?
1) Good riddance to that bum
