Joking aside, after two straight games of getting destroyed on Tuesdays, the Canadiens offered a much more dignified outing last night. Martin St-Louis’ men even took the game into overtime against the Flames.
THE CANNOT BE CONTAINED! pic.twitter.com/8BoPaU1eD7
– Calgary Flames (@NHLFlames) November 6, 2024
Say what you will about what happened at the faceoff on Nick Suzuki or Christian Dvorak, but the fact remains that the Flames scored in part because Dvorak didn’t win his faceoff cleanly.
That’s why he was there.
Because, yes, Mike Matheson and Nick Suzuki started overtime with Dvorak. Even if he didn’t have an ugly game (by his 2024 standards, at least), he didn’t deserve to be there.
Imagine losing at three-on-three without Cole Caufield and Lane Hutson touching the ice…
Dvorak was there to win his face-off. And although he was good yesterday (73.7% efficiency in the face-off circle), he wasn’t able to win the one that mattered most.
A good overtime team plays to win and sends its best players out on the ice from the opening face-off. They trust them, instead of sending in a “specialist” for a few seconds.
Right-handed as he may be, Nick Suzuki still won more than 60% of his face-offs yesterday. He’s no deuce of spades in this respect, and would have had a chance of winning the face-off, too.
6 seconds.
– Calgary Flames (@NHLFlames) November 6, 2024
This is the ninth time the Habs have lost this season. The club isn’t #InTheMix , since winning only four times in thirteen games isn’t exactly enough.
But at least the players’ effort was there (the Habs didn’t throw up on themselves) and the guys didn’t get washed up on a Tuesday night. If there were a column for moral victories, that would be a nice little two points.
1. Lane Hutson was everywhere on the ice. You could see him flying across the ice, and he was very creative… even if he wasn’t always placed in winning conditions to score.
Joel Armia, Oliver Kapanen, Alex Newhook and Josh Anderson on the second wave with him? At least it wasn’t Mr. Five-on-Three and Mr. Prolongation, i.e. Christian Dvorak.
The guys Lane Hutson plays with (30 seconds) on the power play :
Armia, Kapanen, Newhook and Anderson#Grosse2eVague #EnwèyeSa1ereLane
– Maxime Truman (@MaximeTruman) November 6, 2024
2. We were talking about Marc Bureau earlier. But what was his impact on yesterday’s game? How much better or worse did the guys do in the face-off circle against the Flames?
Here’s how it looked.
- Christian Dvorak: 73.7
- Nick Suzuki: 62.5
- Jake Evans: 55.6
- Oliver Kapanen: 20
By the way, speaking of colleague Cook, he’s lying here: he doesn’t find it “harmless” at all.
Random fact: Juraj Slafkovsky with the black ribbon on his stick in the third period.
Only one goal this season… Does he want to change things? #Supertitions
– Marc-Olivier Cook (@Cook_Marco) November 6, 2024
4. We couldn’t wait to see how Samuel Montembeault would react following a couple of difficult outings. And while he wasn’t perfect, it’s clear he was much better last night.
5. The Habs didn’t play badly, but they only took eight shots on goal in the last 40:07 minutes of play. 23 shots against 36, after leading 15-10 after 20 minutes, is not enough.
He’s doing well, Gally. He and Jake Evans have been surprises for the past month.
Brendan Gallagher scores his 5th goal of the season! pic.twitter.com/JyIU7U5O8z
– RDS (@RDSca) November 6, 2024
Overtime
The Canadiens will practice at 11 a.m. this morning in Brossard. Then it’s off to New Jersey to convince Johnathan Kovacevic to return.
Next week, the club will be in Buffalo on Monday (at 12:30 p.m.) before a game in Minnesota on Thursday evening, at 8 p.m. It’s sure to be a busy week on the road for Martin St-Louis’ men.
Next Saturday? Columbus will be in town. But that’s a long way off.