The Montreal Canadiens started their California road trip with a solid bounce back effort against a team in similar spot to themselves by beating the Anaheim Ducks by a score of 4-3 on Wednesday night.
Following their miserable effort against the Boston Bruins on Saturday, head coach Martin St Louis had them grind it out with a couple days of tough, skating heavy practices. It seemed to pay off, Montreal had what was possibly their best first period of the season jumping out to a quick 2-0 lead and having an edge on the shot clock. The first period hasn’t exactly been kind to Montreal this season.
It helps that they once again got top tier goaltending from Sam Montembeault.
Pluses:
- The quick start! Two first period goals 38- seconds apart from Alex Newhook and Kaiden Guhle… It’s a lot easier to win a game when you’re not chasing it.
- Alex Newook is heating up and looked dangerous all night long. That’s three goals in his last two games.
- Monteambeault made some ridiculous saves. This was especially the case in the third period when Anaheim played more desperately. His nicest was the glove save on Frank Vantrano taking away what look like a sure goal.
- Jake Evans’ game might quietly go under the radar and it shouldn’t. Even though it was a secondary assist on the Guhle goal, he started the play. And then a 2-on-1 pass that was perfectly executed to Newhook for the game winner. Almost 60 per cent in the face off circle and did it all with limited minutes.
- Jayden Struble just solid, especially being his NHL debut. It felt like nothing bad happened when he was on the ice. Credit to the coaching staff here as well because they did an excellent job on the road sheltering him and getting him favorable matchups.
- A win in regulation! (That’s only the third this year)
Minuses:
- That will be a game Johnathan Kovacevic wants to forget. He was fighting it and it was an adventure every time he was on the ice.
- Nothing is happening for Cole Caufield. Another five shots on goal but nothing to show for it. One would hope that when he get his next goal, he’ll go on a scoring frenzy. But five goals on the season and just one at 5-on-5 is extremely disappointing.
- Josh Anderson will never score again. Another chance in the third period where you’re left wondering.. “How did that NOT go in?!”
The Montreal Canadiens will continue their trip through California with an afternoon match-up against the LA Kings at 3:30pm on Friday.
thehabsblog.com 
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