Canadiens still completely dominated by Kings

After a big win over the Kraken on Monday night, the Canadiens were back in action tonight, as they welcomed the Quebec Los Angeles Kings to the Bell Centre. And no, the Kings didn’t get $5-7M to come play at the Bell Centre tonight, hehe.

For the occasion, Michael Pezzetta was back in the Tricolore line-up, taking Joel Armia’s place. Samuel Montembeault made his second consecutive start.

For the Kings, Phillip Danault and Pierre-Luc Dubois were unsurprisingly in the lineup.

Here’s the rest of the club’s line-up.

Tonight’s @LAKings projected lines in Montreal.

: @BallySportWest
: LA Kings @iHeartRadio Audio Network pic.twitter.com/KDEE57ZTbp

– LA Kings PR (@LAKingsPR) December 8, 2023

Overall, the Tricolore played a good first period… but between a good outing from Cam Talbot and a bit of bad luck, the club wasn’t able to score.

The problem was that, on the other side of the field, the Kings seized the few opportunities offered by the CH. The visitors took advantage of a rare bad sequence in the Tricolore’s own zone to score the first goal of the game, courtesy of Drew Doughty.

And as well as taking advantage of the Canadiens’ blunders, the Kings were able to create their own chances.

Check out this beautiful goal from Quinton Byfield, who made short work of Kaiden Guhle and Samuel Montembeault. Wow.

Despite a good first period, the CH were trailing by two goals.

Early in the second period, Juraj Slafkovský continued to play with confidence, and it almost paid off. He passed the disc to Nick Suzuki in the opposition zone, who unfortunately hit the post hard.

Slaf has been a sight to behold in recent games, and with a little more luck, the points would have been there already.

We were then treated to a little tension between the two clubs. Pierre-Luc Dubois was one of the victims, while Jayden Struble and Johnathan Kovacevic had their issues with him.

In addition to being a public enemy of the Madness, Dubois clearly hasn’t made any friends among the CH players.

That said, the Kings continued to seize their opportunities, and once again, it was Quinton Byfield who made the Tricolore pay.

This time, he did it on the power play.

After 40 minutes, the score was 3-0.

In the third, Cam Talbot again stood strong in front of the net, frustrating Mike Matheson with a fine save.

And after a nasty fall by Justin Barron (on a linesman), Trevor Moore quadrupled his team’s lead.

If the CH coffin wasn’t already nailed shut, it was with that goal.

Michael Pezzetta and Andreas Englund threw down the gloves late in the game in a fairly meaningless fight. In the list of fights that served no purpose in the history of the sport, it must be pretty high.

It put an end to another game in which the Kings dominated the Habs across the board.

So, for the second time (in two games) this season, the CH was blanked by the Californian outfit.

Final score: 4-0 Los Angeles

The Canadiens return to action on Saturday night, when they travel to Buffalo to take on the Sabres.

Overtime

– The Kings don’t play spectacular hockey, and it’s not necessarily exciting to watch, but it’s extremely effective. They pounce on their opponents’ every blunder and suffocate them completely. They’ve now won their first 11 road games this season, an NHL record.

– That’s right.

– The CH played 120 minutes against the Kings this season, but didn’t find the back of the net once. Pierre Houde mentioned it on the air tonight: the last Habs player to score against the Kings was Denis Gurianov. Not glorious.

– Caroline Ouellette was honoured at the Bell Centre tonight. Well deserved.

Congrats on your induction into the Hockey Hall of Fame, @couellette13

Congrats on your induction into the @HockeyHallFame, Caroline Ouellette #GoHabsGo pic.twitter.com/fVSJwzuOeB

– Montreal Canadiens (@CanadiensMTL) December 8, 2023