It wasn’t a beautiful Picasso of a game by any stretch of the imagination but the Montreal Canadiens secured two points in the standings with a 3-2 shootout win over the San Jose Sharks Friday afternoon.
Montreal spotted the worst team in hockey with a 2-0 lead but got timely goals from Johnathan Kovacevic and Cole Caufield to tie the game and then Jesse Ylonen scored the winner in the shootout.
“It’s not an easy league, we battled until the end and got two points,” said head coach Martin St Louis after the game.
Pluses:
- Cayden Primeau turned in another solid night at the office. There haven’t been too many nights this season where the goaltenders (all three) haven’t given them a chance to win.
- Juraj Slafkovksy is in the midst of a strong stretch of games. He was strong on the puck, made plays in tight areas and is taking the puck into good spots in the offensive zone. Slafkovksy was rewarded with an assist on the tying goal, got time on the ice in overtime and put a nice move on Mackenzie Blackwood in the shootout, although he didn’t score. Many encouraging signs for the former first overall selection.
- Cole Caufield finally score a goal at 5-on-5, we’ll see if this provides a bit of a spark and he can go on a heater.
- Nick Suzuki’s shooutout goal, pure filth. He’s the NHL’s best shooter.
- Jesse Ylonen, doesn’t play in the third period or overtime and then scores the shootout winner on a move equally as nice to Suzuki’s.
- Steady Struble got his first NHL point.
Minuses:
- The San Jose Sharks are awful and this game shouldn’t have needed shootout. It could have been a stats padding night and it wasn’t.
- Johnathan Kovacevic is lost right now defensively (yes he scored again)
- Josh Anderson is never going to score again.
The Montreal Canadiens wrap up their trip to California with a game against the LA Kings at 4pm on Saturday.
thehabsblog.com 
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