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On Saturday night time, the Montreal Canadiens’ woes on the weekend continued, falling to the Toronto Maple Leafs for the second time in three nights by an similar 2-1 rating.
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Moreover shedding consecutive video games for the primary time in 2024-25, the Canadiens suffered by means of one of many worst video games any fan can think about, shedding David Reinbacher and Patrik Laine earlier than the competition was 5 minutes outdated.
Icing an nearly intact Opening Evening lineup, Montreal generated extra alternatives. Nonetheless, their energy play continued to derail their offensive probabilities, and one of many NHL’s lowest-scoring groups solely managed to get one aim previous a goalie certain for the AHL.
Here is a number of speaking factors from the Canadiens first loss on a Saturday night time.
Accidents May Flip 2024-25 Canadiens Into 2023-24 Canadiens
Final 12 months, the Canadiens battled by means of vital accidents, together with the knee damage to Kirby Duch, who completed his finest season within the NHL with 14 targets and 38 factors in 2022-23. He went down within the season’s second recreation and is returning to motion a 12 months later.
After buying former 40-goal scorer Laine from the Columbus Blue Jackets in August, it seems after a grotesque knee-on-knee collision within the first interval, the Finnish ahead won’t be out there till 2025, if he returns in any respect this season.
In the meantime, Reinbacher departed the sport after solely 13 seconds, forcing Montreal to play shorthanded all recreation, lacking each two defensemen (after Arber Xhekaj was tossed for retaliating in wake of Laine’s damage) and a ahead.
It is solely pre-season, however with no fast medical updates, shedding these two skaters for any size of time forces head coach Martin St-Louis to regulate his lineup. As an alternative of executing his recreation plan and tweaking the strains, the group now has to think about shuffling the roster, which was nearly set heading into the ultimate week of video games earlier than the opener.
The Canadiens wanted offense, which was the principle cause for buying Laine. Dropping him earlier than the common season leaves the crew again to sq. one, hoping the children can rating sufficient to bump the crew up the standings.
The Canadiens Ought to Skip Future Energy Play Alternatives
The Canadiens proceed to wrestle on the person benefit. In 2023-24, they ranked twenty seventh, changing on solely 17.5% of their probabilities. Regardless of going 2-0 to begin the pre-season with a aim differential of 8-0, they continue to be goalless on the facility play, going 0-for-11.
Towards the Maple Leafs of their home-and-home collection, the Toronto lineups shut down the Montreal assault, limiting them to 2 targets whereas making them miss all 9 energy play alternatives.
Fortunately, the Canadiens did not hand over any shorthanded targets over the 2 contests, particularly since they tied the Pittsburgh Penguins for probably the most in opposition to final season. However the trigger for concern must be the facility play, which St-Louis is now working.
St-Louis scored 96 man-advantage targets in his profession and assisted on one other 204. The Corridor of Famer ought to know a factor or two about discovering success on the facility play, however by means of the primary 4 pre-season video games, the particular groups appear to be the crew’s greatest weak spot, which can price them severely all through the common season.
Canadiens Present Potential to Intestine Out Wins With Last Push
Though Montreal trailed 2-0 after Nick Robertson scored his second of the night time at 3:26 of the third interval, the Canadiens did not simply sit again and accept a shutout defeat.
First, Jared Davidson scored to make it 2-1, however in one of many quickest opinions in NHL historical past, it was deemed no aim, and play continued. However that disallowed lamplighter did not gradual them down. With Cayden Primeau out of the web, Kirby Dach lit the lamp at 18:18 to provide followers one thing to cheer about apart from Xhekaj’s battle within the first interval.
Dach’s aim allowed Lane Hutson to choose up his second help of the pre-season, with captain Nick Suzuki getting the opposite helper. By the tip of the interval, the Canadiens received 12 pucks on the web, making Dennis Hildeby work to protect his shutout, which he misplaced with lower than two minutes to go.
In the course of the remaining 40 minutes, Montreal outshot Toronto by a 21-12 margin to complete the night time with an edge within the class 27-22, the exact opposite of Thursday night time, when the guests solely collected 17 pictures.
Honestly, it’ll be an extended grind till April, and there are a number of extra matchups in opposition to the Maple Leafs. There shall be loads of ups and downs, however the resiliency the younger guys confirmed down 2-0 in a pre-season recreation signifies that, in some unspecified time in the future, this franchise will flip the nook and change into a contender once more.
Montreal’s pre-season schedule wraps up with a home-and-home in opposition to the Ottawa Senators on Tuesday and Saturday. The Opening Evening rematch in opposition to the Maple Leafs is just ten days away.
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