On Sunday night the Montreal Canadiens played the second game of a weekend back-to-back. With the Anaheim Ducks in town, the result for the Habs was a 4-3 regulation loss.
Just two things are noteworthy for me.
The Canadiens scored three goals on beautiful snipes.
The Habs had some chances in the first period, but Dostal was excellent and shut the door. There were times in those sequences where the passing plays were a joy to watch. They just didn’t finish against a hot goalie.
In the second period , the dam broke when Alex Newhook ripped one in off a nice feed from Hutson. This is a good time to point out that Newhook has been excellent since returning from injury. Then Dobson fed Caufield on a stretch pass and Cole sniped his 39th. Finally, Slafkovsky fed Suzuki for another snipe.
Those are all the right names that you want to see in scoring plays. Two forward lines implicated, the defensemen starting the offense, and solid finishing. Goal production is not an issue for the Habs.
Their offense is not so good that they can ignore defense.
The teams the Canadiens faced this weekend were young and talented and progressing nicely through a rebuild. Just like them. The Habs faced high-end talent and didn’t defend well and it bit them hard.
I’ll say it one more time for the crowd at the back. The defensive pairs are unbalanced and I don’t think Guhle is good enough to play with Hutson against top competition. They have to try one of Reinbacher or Engstrom there.
But the forwards are also too careless in their own end.
If the coach can’t get this young team on board to take defensive responsibility seriously, it will be a short Spring of hockey for the Habs.
Hab At Her 