The Montreal Canadiens continue to find different ways to win games.
They turned over the puck too much for comfort but got a timely late goal from Joel Armia and beat the Columbus Blue Jackets 4-2 on Wednesday night, to wrap up their five game road trip.
What Martin St Louis touches, seems to turn to gold. Armia was inserted into the lineup for Michael Pezzetta and the move paid off.
Even though Montreal hasn’t been convincing in their recent performances, they are finding ways to get points which is something they struggled to do last season.
It’s not perfect but they’ve won three of their last four games and the road trip ultimately has to be deemed a success.
Pluses:
- Let’s start where we usually start, goaltending. It feels like it’s been awhile since Sam Montembeault played in a game where the Canadiens didn’t at the very least have a chance at getting points. This one was no different, Montembeault kept them in it especially in the first period when the Habs were outplayed. Beautiful save on Boone Jenner on a 2-on-1 as well which was a game changer.
- Chemistry is building between Cole Caufield and Juraj Slafkovksy. One of the better cycle/possesion shifts we’ve seen in awhile occured in the second period with the two of them on the ice. Caufield scored a 5-on-5 goal after a nice breakout pass by Slafkovsky sprung Christian Dvorak and Caufield on a 2-on-1. It also seems like Montreal’s top sniper might be heating up.
- Jayden Struble continues to look like he belongs. It’s going to be a great development year for him back in the AHL when Montreal heals up from injuries. We will wait to see if his play fizzles out when the high of being called up to the NHL wears off. But he looks like he can be a regular already.
- Montreal got goals from three different lines, talk about balance.
- Another great Martin St Louis quote after the game… “We’re chasing consistency and for me consistency is doing the things that are not fun but doing it like you love them.”
- When Armia goes to the AHL and comes back to the Habs, he scores.
- Alex Newhook now has seven goals on the season.
- Only one penalty against Montreal and it was for puck over glass.
- The game flew by and was over by 9:25pm.
Minuses:
- Poor puck management, a better team will burn them if they turn over the puck this much.
- Sean Monahan continues to be misused. He being saddled with slumping players and they’ve rubbed off on him. He doesn’t have a point in seven games and hasn’t scored in 12-games. If you want to polish the apple and get a nice return on him at the deadline, playing him with a player who hasn’t scored this season probably isn’t the best idea.
- Josh Anderson is never going to score again.
Montreal’s next opponent is the Florida Panthers on Thursday night at the Bell Centre to begin a four game homestand.
thehabsblog.com 
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