The surprising start to the season continues for the Montreal Canadiens.
They didn’t win Monday night in Las Vegas, but they were the better team, controlled play and deserved better. The defending Stanley Cup Champion Golden Knights won in a shootout 3-2 but the Habs gave them everything they could handle.
There’s always reluctancy to celebrate morale victories but this game is an exception. The Vegas Golden Knights are the standard and Montreal was right there with them.
Montreal’s locker room was in good spirits post game, and head coach Martin St Louis gave the team high praise.
“Since I got the job this is the best game I’ve seen start to finish,” said St Louis after the game. “Even if you don’t get the result, it’s a game where we raised our standards.”
Pluses:
- Nick Suzuki is rolling and the chemistry with Cole Caufield is back. Sorry for suggesting a whole week ago that they should be split up…. It’s going to be interesting to see what they do with the first line when Christian Dvorak returns. Monahan? Newhook? There will be a couple more options at least. Oh, and how about another goal in the shootout? Seriously, is he the best shootout player in the league?
- The Canadiens continue to get solid goaltending, Sam Montembeault matched what Jake Allen did a couple nights ago. He was particularly great in overtime with a penalty shot save on Jack Eichel (he stopped him again in the shootout) and a right pad save on Alex Pietrangelo.
- Kaiden Guhle looks like a stud top-4 defenseman right now. Looks like the game is coming easy to him.
- Sean Monahan won 19 of 23 faceoffs… lol. And he scored shorthanded.
Minuses:
- Another tough one for Juraj Slafkovsky. It’s just not happening for him.
- Two crossbars for Alex Newhook, he deserved better.
- Josh Anderson looked like he was flying, but still hasn’t scored.
- Brendan Gallagher getting time with Suzuki and Caufield… No.
The Montreal Canadiens have a couple days off before taking on the Arizona Coyotes on Thursday night.
thehabsblog.com 
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