Post Game Four: Allen key

Things aren’t that bad.

The Montreal Canadiens blew a two goal lead in the third period but got a Cole Caufield overtime winner to beat the Washington Capitals by a score of 3-2 Saturday night at the Bell Centre.

The headlines have recently been dominated by the fact that the Canadiens are the most penalized team in the league and have had issues on special teams. But they’ve picked up points in three of the four games, including two wins. At the end of the season, they don’t ask how, they ask how many…

Pluses:

• It was one of Jake Allen’s best games in a long time and he was definitely much better than opening night in Toronto. Montreal’s starting goaltender made 31-saves and was named the first star of the game. They don’t win this one without him. Allen made saves of the highlight variety, including a right toe save on a 2-on-1 robbing Anthony Mantha of what looked like a sure goal and an old school double pad stack after Alex Ovechkin took a fake shot and dished it off to Nicklas Backstrom. He had no chance at stopping either of Dylan Strome’s goals.
• Brendan Gallagher scored…!? Even though he’s been one of the least used forwards this season, it probably came as a relief when he got his first of the year. It was a great play by Sean Monahan, stalling long enough and putting the puck at the net as Gallagher came crashing in. It was the most Gallagher goal one could imagine, right on the edge of the crease both puck and player going into the net. His contract will always be an issue but maybe a goal gets the fans off his back for at least a couple of days.
• Easily Nick Suzuki’s strongest game of the year. He made a beautiful pass to Monahan on a powerplay goal in the first period (that’s right, the PP got one!) He assisted on Caufield’s OT winner, won almost 70 per cent of his faceoffs and was Montreal’s most used forward. Most importantly, Suzuki was much harder to play against than in the previous three games.
• Martin St Louis continues to be a quote machine: “I like my team, I care about my team and I feel like there’s so much good going on, the last two days was just focused on the negative,” said St Louis post game. “I was asked a question (about Suzuki) and the easiest thing for me is not to say anything but I’m honest, I try not to lie.”

Minuses:

• For the third time this season Montreal let a third period lead evaporate. While they escaped with wins against both Chicago and Washington following third period meltdowns, the lack of killer instinct demonstrates their inexperience and how early they are in their rebuild.
• Penalties, penalties, penalties. They gifted Washington five powerplays and even though that’s a slight improvement from the previous two games, if this was the Washington Capitals of old rather than the old Washington Capitals, the outcome would have been different.

The light schedule comes to a screeching halt this week. After playing four games in the first two weeks of the season, Montreal will play four games in six nights. Next up will be the Buffalo Sabres on the road on Monday night.