Thanksgiving weekend in the United States means three games in four days for the Montreal Canadiens on the road. Salt Lake City, Las Vegas and Denver are the destinations of a difficult road trip.
Stop one was Wednesday night in Utah against the improving Mammoth. Their road to better days is a mirror of the Canadiens’ road. Both teams entered the contest four games over NHL .500. Both teams are young, and both are expected to be strong for a long time.
The footprint of both clubs is speed, and the Canadiens love that matchup. They beat the Mammoth 6-2 in Montreal, and they doubled it up with a 4-3 win in Utah.
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When the Canadiens struggled recently, it was brawn and bad goaltending that destroyed them. Montreal loves to get a chance to skate because they might just be the best team in the entire league for speed. In the first period, it was the Canadiens who dominated, scoring twice.
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The first was on the power play as Lane Hutson slid a smooth pass over to Zach Bolduc for a one-timer. It was his first goal in 14 games. Getting a chance on the first line may be vital for Bolduc’s season. The Canadiens have the number one power play in the league on the road at more than 30 per cent.
Bolduc was also instrumental in a 2-0 goal on a three-on-two break. The goal is to isolate a defender to turn that into a two-on-one. That meant Bolduc had to charge the net to take a defender with him. As a two-on-one, the rest was up to the execution of the two best players on the club in that endeavour.
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Cole Caufield slid a cross-ice pass to Nick Suzuki for the 400th point in his career. That’s 26 points in 22 games this season. He is better than the pace of his breakout season last year, accumulating 89 points. For the first time in a couple of weeks, Suzuki seemed to be at 100 per cent in his skating.
It was Suzuki who tied it in the third period. On the power play, the Canadiens had just scored but were called back due to offside, but they persevered. Brendan Gallagher wired it off the post on the Bolduc pass. Suzuki ripped the rebound home.
Just over a minute later, the Canadiens scored again. In what might have been Ivan Demidov’s worst game of the season, he showed that stars can be bad, but still be the hero because of their lightning-strike talent. Demidov used the defender as a screen and wired a shot far side.
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The final horse was Jakub Dobes in the net. The Mammoth put on a fierce final minutes looking for the equalizer. Dobes had to make some difficult saves. He was impressive. Dobes with 31 saves on 34 shots. Dobes with a .912 on the night as a save percentage.
It’s the number starting with a nine that you need to win in today’s NHL, and the Canadiens weren’t getting any of those. Many nights, they didn’t even get a save percentage starting with an eight. There is so much parity in the league. The winner is often found in that save percentage, because goaltending is the most important and the most inconsistent aspect of the league right now.
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While the Canadiens were the only team skating in the first period, the Mammoth joined the race in the second frame. The penalty kill was an issue again. Montreal was in control, but allowed a power play goal for the sixth straight game.
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Canadiens’ penalty-killers are always too passive, allowing the setup too easily. It’s such a vital part of a good kill that the attackers can’t get in their formation. Even when Montreal does kill the man advantage, they are chasing in their own zone for most of it. The PK doesn’t seem well-coached. It’s 24th in the league.
The Canadiens, for the most part, do not miss Joel Armia or Christian Dvorak, but they miss Armia on the kill, and they miss Dvorak on faceoffs.
Utah came back with three straight goals in the second to take the lead. The third goal was particularly difficult to watch. Michael Carcone and Joe Veleno were in a puck battle behind the net. Not only did Veleno lose the battle, but he also lost body position, allowing Carcone to take a clean path to the front of the goal, where he got not one, but two shots to score.
It was the type of play that will eventually spell Veleno to the press box and beyond. It’s just not good enough. The defence was a mess in the second period. They got outworked. Alex Carrier was minus-two. He is now minus-nine on the year. Only Jake Evans is worse.
Adam Engstrom played his first NHL game. He made good decisions and had a decent game, but the issue is that he, like Arber Xhekaj, didn’t play enough. The refusal of Martin St. Louis to have any confidence in his sixth defender is skewing ice times, matchups, line changes and chemistry.
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It’s report card time for the Montreal Canadiens with a quarter of the season completed. The grades run from near perfection to near failure. Rather than forcibly detailing every player with a grade, stand-outs, both positively and negatively, is the more logical effort.
The top grade goes to the captain. Nick Suzuki truly is the leader of this club. He brings courage with blocked shots, intelligence every shift, and centres one of the best lines in the league.
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His top sidekick is Cole Caufield, who has slowed down his goal run recently, but is still tied for sixth in the league with 13. Both players get the top grade of A+.
Only one defender joins them at A+. Mike Matheson stands out with excellence at both ends. Matheson continues to log massive minutes. He’s cut his mistakes down defensively. He leads the team’s rearguards in plus-minus by a large margin.
Matheson is the linchpin of a true first pair on the Canadiens. His partner, Noah Dobson, gets a grade just under Matheson of A because of the 10 less he is in plus-minus. Matheson, at a team-leading plus 12, shows his value immensely, considering he is the Canadiens’ ice time leader at nearly 25 minutes.
Lane Hutson slides down to a B as he is trying to do a little too much, often leaving the club short in the back. The Canadiens are one of the top-scoring teams in hockey. They don’t need Hutson to be a gambler as much as he is. They need him to be a bit more cautious, at least, until he is playing in front of a goalie who can make saves.
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Still, Hutson is a standout, as are three other forwards. Though it may be a bit of a recency bias, Juraj Slafkovsky looks on the verge of breaking out as a player. He gets a B for being part of a great line, before moving to a line he is on the verge of making great.
The other two B grades complete the line: Ivan Demidov leads all rookie scorers, and he is just getting comfortable on his way to stardom. Oliver Kapanen has become a much better player using that impressive Scandinavian education, which always seems prevalent when they come over from the competitive Swedish Hockey League. However, the call here is that Kapanen is only a third-line centre on an upper-echelon club.
There have been some disappointing results so far in the D grade category. Josh Anderson could be more physical than he has been. Joe Veleno has to figure out who he is in the NHL. The minus 11 of Jake Evans is concerning as a number.
No positive person likes to give out an F, but it has to be done. The Canadiens’ goaltending in the last 30 days is second-worst in the league behind only the St. Louis Blues. It doesn’t really matter how well all the skaters are performing if the goalie can’t make the simplest of saves.
Samuel Montembeault has gone from top five in the league in goals saved above expected last season to bottom five this season. His .852 save percentage is costing points in the standings. His partner in the crease is better on the season, but worse in the last month. Jakub Dobes is also losing his net at an alarming rate.
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This is a team with three-quarters of it earning excellent grades, yet confidence is waning due to easy shots going in, making everyone look bad.
On the bright side, those poor goalie grades should get much better because goalies always return close to their mean average.
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Brian Wilde, a Montreal-based sports writer, brings you Call of the Wilde on globalnews.ca after each Canadiens game.