3 Takeaways From The Battle Of The Rebuilders

It would not have been the case if the Montreal Canadiens had had weak first frames late on Sunday afternoon. Martin St-Louis’ men were ready from the get-go against the Anaheim Ducks, and they dominated all facets of play early on, capitalizing on the man advantage and also scoring while on the penalty kill. Unfortunately, the level of effort didn’t stay the same throughout.

Christian Dvorak’s Great Start

It had been quite some time since the Canadiens got any secondary scoring, heavily relying on the first line for scoring. But on Sunday afternoon, Dvorak scored the second goal of the game while on the power play, the second man-advantage unit had been stifled since Emil Heineman scored on January 3rd.

Related: Is Lane Hutson Tired?

Dvorak also shined in his zone, though, when David Savard was caught flat-footed at the blue line, and Kirby Dach left his men in the defensive coverage attracted to the puck like a moth to a flame, it was the American who picked up, and the slack, even making the save in front of Samuel Montembeault. Unfortunately, much like the rest of the team, he didn’t keep it up all game long. He was on the ice for the Ducks’ game-winning goal and was lost in no man’s land in his defensive coverage.

Joel Armia’s Strength

The Finn gave the Canadiens the lead while down a man and scored his 11th shorthanded goal with the Canadiens, giving him sole possession of the 9th place in team history.

Who did he leave behind? Martin Rucinsky shares 10th place with Benoit Brunet, Jimmy Roberts, and Frank Mahovlich with 10 shorties. There’s no doubt that Armia is overpaid at $3.4 M a year, but as his contract is expiring, I believe Kent Hughes will consider bringing him back at the right price for his limited role.

St-Louis Cracks The Whip

The Canadiens don’t have a John Tortorella behind the bench, but even St-Louis has his limits. Patrik Laine played 32 seconds in the final frame, he had a single shift and was nowhere to be seen as Montreal tried to level the score late in the game. His linemate Kirby Dach had three shifts and rode the pine in the dying minutes.

Juraj Slafkovsky didn’t see as much ice time as he would have liked with the goalie pulled. Captain Nick Suzuki was on the ice for 2:47 continuously as the Habs desperately tried to level the score. The young Slovak has a tendency to try cross-zone passes at the worst of times. The odds of completion are very slim, and the truth is, this is the kind of play St-Louis is talking about when he says, “We threw up on ourselves.”

Related: Nick Suzuki Wins January Molson Cup

This is a fifth consecutive loss for the Canadiens, and it hurts their hopes of making the playoffs. Not so long ago, Montreal was in the second wild-card spot, but now they are five points behind the Tampa Bay Lightning, currently in the last spot giving access to the Spring dance, and John Cooper’s men have a game in hand.

The Habs will fly to San Jose, where they’ll play the Sharks in the first match of a back-to-back at 10:30 PM on Tuesday night. The next day, they’ll face the Los Angeles Kings at the same late hour. One has to wonder if fans will deem it appropriate to stay up late to watch…

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