Canadiens: Not Up To The Challenge

The emotion was palpable at the Bell Centre tonight before the Montreal Canadiens took on the Vegas Golden Knight. All the adverts on the boards were lavender and elder statesman David Savard warmed up wearing a Hockey Fights Cancer toque, somewhat trying to make up for the fact the league has nixed the warmup jersey program on special nights.

For the national anthems, each of the players standing on the ice were paired up with a Leucan kid who's battling cancer. When Josh Anderson's frail 6-year-old partner was introduced and he had to carry him to the blue line, there was thunderous applause, as if to try to give those kids a full tank of courage, which they no doubt already have plenty of. The Bell Centre was then lit up with 21,000+ cell phone lights as the anthem were sung.

Once the puck dropped though, it was all down to business for both teams. The Canadiens skated carefully early on, trying to ensure they didn't make any mistake, but a mistake came soon enough when they were given a bench minor for too-many men two minutes in.

Montreal was able to kill the two minutes unscathed, but that was mainly down to Samuel Montembeault who had to make two big saves, one on a one-timer from the slot and the other one from in close. It set the tone for the rest of the period really as the masked men was tested 12 times, up high, down low, glove save, pad save, the netminder was on his game.

The Habs did have the edge in hits 15-3, which makes sense considering how much they had to chase the puck. One little mistake seems to unsettle the players and it takes them a few minutes to recover, even if the mistake doesn't lead to a goal, it still led to a series of (minor) unfortunate events in the first 20 minutes that is.

If Montembeault stood tall in the first, he couldn't do anything to avoid the slaughter in the second. Last week, Martin St-Louis told the media that some teams feed off "maybe" plays and that's exactly what the Knights did in the middle frame.

The first goal came from a good passing play but then the second came from a Kirby Dach turnover, an ill advised no look pass which bought the sometimes center a stay on the bench. Then, Juraj Slafkovsky tried a risky pass in the offensive zone, the play rushed the other way and two Knights made Montembeault go from one side to the other to make it 3-0.

After that, it looked like Alex Newhook and Cole Caufield could escape to the Knights net, but the former blew a tire, Vegas took the puck back and Noah Hanifin found Tanner Pearson in space, he sent a shot up high on Montembeault to make it 4-0. Four goals in six minutes.

With less than three minutes to go, Montembeault was unable to handle a shot glove side, spilled the puck and it was promptly tapped in the net 5-0 Vegas. If there were "ole, ole" calls early in the first, the boo birds came out in drones after that goal and when the broadcast showed Jeff Gorton and Kent Hughes watching the game, they looked pensive to say the least. After the game, St-Louis was clear, stating his team deserved the boos.

Cayden Primeau came into the game at the start of the third and it shook the Canadiens. Vegas took a delay of game penalty and Emil Heineman was able to break the ice for Montreal.

The first wave of the power play was unable to generate much, but when the second unit came on, they passed the puck with purpose, deported the Vegas defense to one side and fed Heineman who was all alone on the other side for an easy goal. Once again tonight, Heineman was very visible in his 9:34 spent on the ice, on top of a goal, he also landed 4 hits and he knows what he’s doing. At times, he pushes the puck forward just a little bit so that the opponent reaches it first before obliterating his rival. A rare bright spot in a lacklustre game.

11 minutes later, Jayden Struble scored his first of the season, after Brendan Gallagher had brought the puck to the front of the net. It made it 5-2, giving the fans a bit of hope that was quickly extinguished when Jack Eichel made it 6-2.

Related: Canadiens: The Big Surprise This Season

After the game St-Louis was asked about Slafkovsky and Dach's play and he replied:

Of course they're trying to make something happen, but you know it's a hard league. And for Dacher, I feel for Dacher, he missed a lot of time and it's frustrating for him cause you know, we all know how good he can be... They want to help but it's a fine line between helping and hurting.

As for Slafkovsky, he looked like he was fuming post-game. Asked how he had to go forward, he replied he probably just needed to work his [insert expletive here] off and that being minus-four, he didn't even know what to say really. Meanwhile, Dach seemed to feel exactly like his teammate, and mentioned [insert expletive here] turnovers as the root cause of the problem.

Slafkovsky and Dach finished the game playing on the fourth line alongside Lucas Condotta and hopefully, the lesson will have been learnt. The Canadiens now have a day off tomorrow and they'll be back in Brossard on Monday before welcoming the latest team to enter the NHL the Utah Hockey Club on Tuesday.

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