Timing is every thing — each in life and sports activities. And there actually gave the impression to be no higher time to play the Tampa Bay Lightning than Tuesday evening on the Bell Centre.
The Lightning was enjoying its second sport in as many nights.
The Lightning was on a four-game shedding streak.
The Lightning had been shut out its final two video games.
The Lightning was lacking first-string goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy.
The Lightning was averaging barely greater than three targets per sport this season and is on tempo for its lowest offensive manufacturing since 2016-17.
However none of that appears to matter when a workforce is enjoying the Canadiens at dwelling — a minimum of not these days. Defence has turn into a four-letter phrase for this workforce. So has its goaltending. And its lack of scoring depth. In solely 16 dwelling video games this season, the Canadiens have now
misplaced 7-0 to Dallas
;
8-4 to Washington
and 6-1 to Tampa Bay. However the costs of parking and beer have remained unchanged.
The excellent news, if any, is the workforce is making ready to get out of Dodge, with video games at Pittsburgh Thursday evening and Madison Sq. Backyard towards the New York Rangers on Saturday.
Dwelling candy dwelling:
The Canadiens solely misplaced 12 video games in regulation at dwelling final season. One yr later, Montreal’s Bell Centre report is 7-8-1. Go determine. It should be the visitors.
Information you want (Half I):
This was Satisfaction Evening on the Bell Centre. However the Canadiens had none.
The warden’s getting stressed:
Following the sport, the Canadiens introduced the recall of ahead Owen Beck, defenceman Adam Engstrom and – await it –
rookie goaltender Jacob Fowler
from AHL Laval. Message despatched. Now we’ll discover out if anybody’s listening.
Sieves of the evening:
Take your decide.
Jakub Dobes
allowed three first-period targets, together with two inside 4 photographs in fewer than 4 minutes. His save proportion was .786. He was changed by
Samuel Montembeault
to start the second interval. The veteran allowed a aim on the primary shot he confronted and twice extra within the third interval. He solely had 13 photographs over 40 minutes. His save proportion was .769
Information you want (Half II):
The Canadiens directed three photographs at Jonas Johansson within the sport’s opening 91 seconds.
Information you want (Half III):
The Canadiens failed to supply one other shot till greater than 10 minutes had elapsed.
How to not play defence (Half I):
Brayden Level went round Jayden Struble on the primary aim.
How to not play defence (Half II):
Noah Dobson couldn’t corral a move from Ivan Demidov, leading to a Lightning breakaway and its second aim.
One of the best penalty he ever took:
Pontus Holmberg was the recipient of that breakaway as he emerged from his minor for interference. He deked Dobes, beating him between the legs.
And it might have been worse:
Within the sport’s eleventh minute, Holmberg was looking at an open web following a rebound. His backhand shot hit the put up.
How to not play goalie:
Dobes had no stick, couldn’t observe the puck and was out of place on the Lightning’s third aim. In any other case, he performed the shot completely.
Take a look at the intense facet:
The Canadiens’ second-period meltdowns have been properly documented. However on this evening every workforce scored as soon as within the interval. No hurt, no foul.
Nice moments in officiating:
Juraj Slafkovsky handed to Cole Caufield within the second interval. Caufield, whose
11-game level streak got here to an finish
, had an open web however was knocked to the ice by Darren Raddysh. We imagine a tripping penalty might have been known as.
Make-up name:
Seconds later, Charle-Edouard D’Astous was known as for tripping. Definitely it was nothing greater than a coincidence.
Nice hand-eye co-ordination:
Oliver Kapanen
, who makes a behavior of going to the web, knocked the puck out of mid-air on the facility play within the remaining minute of the second interval for Montreal’s solely aim. He has scored 9 this season.
Late targets kill:
Till they don’t. Raddysh scored the primary of his two third-period targets after only one:27.
It was that sort of an evening:
Zachary Bolduc had a scoring alternative within the third interval — however whiffed on his shot.
Dumb penalty:
Bolduc’s journey on Curtis Douglas off a faceoff within the interval — not that it mattered at that juncture.
Faceoff of the evening:
Jake Guentzel beat Jake Evans, finally ensuing within the customer’s remaining aim — not that it mattered at that juncture.
Fast stats:
Demidov and Mike Matheson each had been minus-3. Nick Suzuki had 4 photographs. Arber Xhekaj had 5 hits — yet one more than Joe Veleno. Matheson and Dobson each blocked three photographs. Matheson performed 22:04. The Canadiens received 69.8 per cent of their faceoffs however had been outhit, 27-24.
They mentioned it:
“I feel typically we simply lose focus,” Alexandre Service mentioned. “Typically we’re on the proper spot however don’t end the job. It’s a mix of loads of issues. I believed we had been nice at dwelling final yr. We’ve simply bought to seek out vitality, truthfully. Now we have to make use of the group to our benefit … and get momentum.”
“I preferred the beginning for positive,” Suzuki mentioned. “I believed we generated quite a bit early on after which gave up two breakaway targets. Then a 3rd one. Whenever you give a workforce like {that a} 3-0 lead it’s positively robust to return again. There’s positively been some robust losses at dwelling in current reminiscence, however I don’t assume there’s one factor you’ll be able to level to. As a gaggle I believed we sort of defended not horribly tonight. They capitalized on a whole lot of their Grade-A (probabilities) and sort of modified the sport for positive.”
“I feel we’ve bought to be much more mature,” Caufield mentioned. “We are able to’t let video games get out of hand like that. We’ve bought to seek out methods to cease it and get the momentum again. We’ve bought to be quite a bit higher. It’s fairly irritating proper now. It hasn’t been constant for us the previous couple of weeks. We’ve bought to repair that.
hzurkowsky@postmedia.com
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