The Canadiens Didn’t Spoil The Party

It took a long time before the puck dropped this afternoon, from 3:00 PM, the Boston Bruins celebrated officially turning 100, but when the puck dropped, they were ready to go and got down to business.

The Montreal Canadiens held it together for 11 minutes, but then, the Bruins turned it up a notch. There was a miscommunication in the Habs zone, which led to Charlie McAvoy walking in, wrapping around the net and opening the score. While the defensive zone assignment were missed, the fact Cayden Primeau was completely deported to his right and had no idea where his net was made it easy for the blueliner to score.

As has often been the case this season, the opening goal shook the Canadiens and just over a minute later, David Pastrnak beat him up high to make it 2-0. That was not going to settle anyone’s nerves, and 15 seconds later Charlie Coyle found the back of the net. At 3-0, Martin St-Louis called a timeout to stop the hemorrhage, something he didn’t do when his team collapsed an gave up five goals in a period against the Vegas Golden Knights, and it worked.

Primeau was still in net for the start of the second and there’s no doubt the Canadiens were hoping to get a fresh start. Nikita Zadorov gave them a golden opportunity, being assessed a two-minute delay of game penalty, but things didn’t go as planned.

Mike Matheson was back on the first wave of the power play, taking over from Lane Hutson, and the veteran coughed up the puck to McAvoy who took off and promptly deked out Primeau to give the Bruins a 4-0 lead. 38 seconds into the second frame, things had taken yet another turn for the worst.

Things didn’t unravel like in the first period though and five minutes later, Arber Xhekaj joined in the attack, skating for the side and throwing the puck in front before going behind the net. The puck bounced off right winger Cole Caufield and snuck by Jeremy Swayman. A 15th goal on the season for the sniper, and a fourth consecutive game with a goal. The score remained 4-1 at the end of 40 minutes.

The final stanza started exactly like the previous one, when Coyle scored his second of the game just 21 seconds in. The Habs fought right back though, Emil Heineman buried a one-timer to make it 5-2 with his sixth goal of the season. I’ve written about him lately, and I stand by what I’ve written, when Laine is back, I don’t see why the young Swede could draw the short straw.

Four minutes later, Caufield added another lamplighter to his account to make it 5-3 with his 16th of the season. The diminutive winger is now on pace for 54 goals on the season and whatever happens collectively this season, his chase for a goalscoring milestone will be the story that keeps on giving. Unfortunately for Montreal, this is where their comeback ended.

Boston added an empty net goal, final score 6-3. Primeau made 24 saves on 29 shots for a .828 save percentage. The loss doesn’t hang solely on him, but time will eventually run out on the Primeau experiment. A weak glove hand, issues knowing where he is in the net and tracking the puck, and a shaky confidence at best, at one stage somebody has to call it.

Related: Canadiens: Round Two In Boston

Veteran blueliner Matheson didn’t have a great game either. Yes, he hit the post twice, but he finished his night with a minus-four rating. On the Bruins’ second goal, he was so captivated by the puck that he left scoring ace Pastrnak all on his lonesome, which made it very easy for him to score his ninth of the season.

Collectively, this team has a huge confidence issue. A single goal can sometimes send it in a panicked frenzy which makes the players shoot themselves in the foot repeatedly. St-Louis can say his players have good intentions, but the road to hell is paved with good intentions as they say.

The Canadiens will now be heading home for a very busy homestand with four games in seven days. The New York Islanders will be in town on Tuesday, followed by the struggling Nashville Predators on Thursday, the “Ovechkinless” Washington Capitals on Saturday and, finally, the Anaheim Ducks on Monday week.

It’s expected Laine will be back in the lineup this week, but there’s no definite date set yet. In other roster news, Rafael Harvey-Pinard wasn’t claimed on waived and was assigned to the Laval Rocket in the AHL.

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