Post Game 24: Comeback attempt falls short

Another poor start, led to another loss for the Montreal Canadiens 5-4 in overtime to the Detroit Red Wings on Saturday night at the Bell Centre.

The home team couldn’t find inspiration from a pre game ceremony celebrating the Montreal Alouettes’ Grey Cup Championship.

Instead, Detroit jumped out to a quick 3-0 lead forcing Montreal to play catch-up the rest of the night. They showed the willingness to compete while trailing and battled to get a point by sending the game to overtime but constantly surrendering the first goal of the game is not a recipe for success.

To add salt to the womb, Detroit defenseman Jake Walman showed off his best tic-tok dance moves after scoring the overtime winner.

Pluses:

• The crowd gave a nice ovation to the Grey Cup Champion Montreal Alouettes. Hard not to cheer for this group of players that few believed in at the start of the CFL season.
• The coaching staff adjusted to what was happening in the game. Giving Joel Armia the bump to the first line after a solid two periods was the first in game adjustment this season forced by a player who was having a strong game.
• Gustav Lindstrom scored again… And he does it against his former team which must have felt good.
• Scoring from defenseman generally has been Montreal’s strongest attribute. Justin Barron scored late in the first period and has generally picked his spots well.

Minuses:

• The Canadiens allowed the first goal for a fifth straight game.
• The powerplay finally got a goal after an extended period of time without scoring. But they also allowed a shorthanded goal for the fifth time this season.
• Jake Allen’s struggles continue and while he wasn’t terrible, he should have stopped the game winner scored by Walman.
• Walman’s celebration was cringe worthy… Celebrations are fine. This was was just lame. Major fromage.
• Josh Anderson is never going to score again.
• Montreal has to go back to the drawing board in many different areas. And a lot of it comes down to coaching. The injury situation is unfortunate and Montreal is often up against opponents with superior talent. But you have to adjust and find ways to bridge that gap.

Montreal’s next match-up is against the Seattle Kraken on Monday night at the Bell Centre at 7:30pm.