Tag: allen

Post Game 12: Ticked off Tampa

The Tampa Bay Lightning are always a tough matchup for the Montreal Canadiens. Add in the fact that Tampa Bay blew a 4-1 lead against Toronto the night before playing in Montreal, the outcome Tuesday night at the Bell Centre was predictable.

The Lightning got four first period goals, including one just 22-seconds into the game and beat the Canadiens 5-3 in a game where the final score didn’t tell the whole story… It wasn’t close.

Even with a late third period push by Montreal, the game was over 13-minutes in after Michael Eyssimont scored a terrible goal from behind the goal line on Jake Allen, forcing Montreal to make a goaltender change. Funny enough, Allen was named the Molson Cup winner for October given to the team’s best player.

Although that goal was a bad one to give up, the game was not on Allen. It’s on the team as a collective who didn’t look ready to start the game or match the intensity of the opposition. It doesn’t help that Tampa Bay is more experienced and talented as well.

“We have too many pockets where we let our foot off the gas, miss an assignment, we don’t manage the risk, it’s a combination of many things,” said head coach Martin St Louis after the game. “Teams go through that, you just got to tighten it up.”

Just eight days after St Louis praised his team for playing their best game since his appointment as head coach, they’ve lost three straight in regulation and all to teams who played the night before.

Pluses:

  • Montreal didn’t quit, even though it would have been easy to mail it in for the third period and look ahead to Thursday night in Detroit. Instead, they pushed and made the Lightning sweat just a little bit. They won the final frame and showed the never say die attitude that has been a constant this season.
  • Sam Montembeault wasn’t expecting to play but was solid in relief. Named the third star of the game, things probably get out of hand with a lopsided score if he doesn’t come in and make some big saves, especially in the second period. Also made a highlight reel right pad save on Brayden Point
  • Christian Dvorak scored in just his second game back. The goal was in garbage time, but it’s always good to get that first one out of the way when coming back from a long injury.

Minuses:

  • The slow starts, particularly on the scoreboard. That’s six straight games where Montreal allows the first goal. “We kind of dug the hole too fast and weren’t able to fill it up so it’s something to learn off of for sure,” said Tanner Pearson.
  • The struggles continue for Mike Matheson and Jordan Harris. Even though one of the goals was a powerplay marker, the pair managed to be on the ice for all four first period goals. Matheson is logging too many minutes and the workload is affecting his play.
  • Terrible discipline, best outlined by Arber Xhekaj taking taking two penalties and putting Tampa Bay on the powerplay when Montreal had clear momentum, just because he wanted to settle a score with Tanner Jeannot. “Whatever you do on the ice, the actions you take have them taking care of the team mentality, not necessarily what you want to do at that time; what does the team need you to do at that time,” said St Louis. “I thought we were pretty good at that and to me that slipped away.”
  • When the goalies don’t steal the game, the Canadiens don’t have a shot to win. Allen wasn’t at his best but at some point the team will have to learn to win without the goalie standing on their head.

Montreal’s next opponent is in Detroit on the road taking on the Red Wings.

0

Post Game Four: Allen key

Things aren’t that bad.

The Montreal Canadiens blew a two goal lead in the third period but got a Cole Caufield overtime winner to beat the Washington Capitals by a score of 3-2 Saturday night at the Bell Centre.

The headlines have recently been dominated by the fact that the Canadiens are the most penalized team in the league and have had issues on special teams. But they’ve picked up points in three of the four games, including two wins. At the end of the season, they don’t ask how, they ask how many…

Pluses:

  • It was one of Jake Allen’s best games in a long time and he was definitely much better than opening night in Toronto. Montreal’s starting goaltender made 31-saves and was named the first star of the game. They don’t win this one without him. Allen made saves of the highlight variety, including a right toe save on a 2-on-1 robbing Anthony Mantha of what looked like a sure goal and an old school double pad stack after Alex Ovechkin took a fake shot and dished it off to Nicklas Backstrom. He had no chance at stopping either of Dylan Strome’s goals.
  • Brendan Gallagher scored…!? Even though he’s been one of the least used forwards this season, it probably came as a relief when he got his first of the year. It was a great play by Sean Monahan, stalling long enough and putting the puck at the net as Gallagher came crashing in. It was the most Gallagher goal one could imagine, right on the edge of the crease both puck and player going into the net. His contract will always be an issue but maybe a goal gets the fans off his back for at least a couple of days.
  • Easily Nick Suzuki’s strongest game of the year. He made a beautiful pass to Monahan on a powerplay goal in the first period (that’s right, the PP got one!) He assisted on Caufield’s OT winner, won almost 70 per cent of his faceoffs and was Montreal’s most used forward. Most importantly, Suzuki was much harder to play against than in the previous three games.
  • Martin St Louis continues to be a quote machine: “I like my team, I care about my team and I feel like there’s so much good going on, the last two days was just focused on the negative,” said St Louis post game. “I was asked a question (about Suzuki) and the easiest thing for me is not to say anything but I’m honest, I try not to lie.”

Minuses:

  • For the third time this season Montreal let a third period lead evaporate. While they escaped with wins against both Chicago and Washington following third period meltdowns, the lack of killer instinct demonstrates their inexperience and how early they are in their rebuild.
  • Penalties, penalties, penalties. They gifted Washington five powerplays and even though that’s a slight improvement from the previous two games, if this was the Washington Capitals of old rather than the old Washington Capitals, the outcome would have been different.

The light schedule comes to a screeching halt this week. After playing four games in the first two weeks of the season, Montreal will play four games in six nights. Next up will be the Buffalo Sabres on the road on Monday night.

0

Blog at WordPress.com.

Up ↑