On Tuesday night the Montreal Canadiens greeted the Florida Panthers with hopes of getting back to their winning ways. After a very slow start, the Habs turned it on in the third period and the result was a 4-3 shootout win.
Here’s what’s on my mind.
The coach took the opportunity to test some new lines.
Leading up to the game we learned there would be some changes to the line-up. Following the loss, St. Louis took the opportunity to shuffle his lines, and include some guys from the press box. Dach and Texier were healthy and inserted back in and Gallagher and Veleno were out.
All lines but the top line were impacted. Kapanen was dropped to the fourth line wing, while Newhook moved to the middle and Texier joined that line. The new second line looked very good, with Demidov being the best player on the night.
Where in the world is Kaiden Guhle?
I don’t believe I’ve ever heard “maintenance day” used in reference to a player missing a game. Practice? Sure. But we’re not talking about practice.
It feels like “maintenance day” is code for something else… like “he’s tweaked something but we can’t tell you Guhle is injured again” or “he’s not been very good for a couple and we thought a look from the press box would help, but that doesn’t fit the Guhle narrative” or “he’s barely back from his last injury so we don’t want to push our luck with playoffs looming”.
I know I’m hard on Guhle, but I think most media and pundits are soft on him. He’s just not been very reliable for the Habs. I’ve come to a quasi-firm view that as long as the Canadiens are relying on Guhle to be an important part of their D group, there will be concerns about that D group. I won’t likely change that view until he delivers 82 games in a season.
Someone needs to tell Slaf he’s chasing his own milestone.
Since Caufield scored his 49th, the Habs have been forcing the play in his direction and there is no worse culprit than Slafkovsky. In the meanwhile, he’s sitting on 29 goals himself and Suzuki is chasing 100 points. Someone show them a little video of the compiled forced plays.
It was another solid night from Jakub Dobes.
Dobes held the Canadiens in the game at several points last night, made some big saves in the overtime, and was solid in the shootout. His celebration after his final stop was evidence of the emotion the kid plays with.
The Habs are tied with the Lightning and Sabres with 102 points. Unfortunately, the tie-breakers leave them in third place in the Atlantic Division, so they will need to pull off more points if they want home ice advantage for the playoffs.
Tampa Bay visits on Thursday for a huge standings game.
Hab At Her 