A difficult five-game road trip continued Tuesday night for the Montreal Canadiens with a date in Edmonton. The Oilers are one of the hottest clubs in the league, but don’t always have great goaltending, so Montreal had hoped to catch that advantage at Rogers Place.
The Oilers started their back-up Calvin Pickard, and he posted the win, but not before the Canadiens gave it a tremendous effort, losing 3-2 in overtime.
Wilde Horses
It was quite a sleepy affair for two periods, then in the third period, the Canadiens looked like Herb Brooks had come in for a motivational speech at the intermission. It was a remarkable how Montreal turned it around and suddenly dominated in the third.
They tied it quickly with two milestone goals. Juraj Slafkovsky centred the puck into the crease where Nick Suzuki was breaking hard to the net. It went off his skate and in. For Suzuki, it was the 27th goal of his season to set a new career high for a campaign.
A short time after that, it Kaiden Guhle streaked down the left side to count. That was a huge goal for Guhle as well because he calls Edmonton home. He finished his junior career with the Oil Kings where he led them to a WHL title and won the league’s MVP award in the playoffs.
Some home cooking for Guhle before the game, some family and friends in attendance, and probably some money on the board, all acted as incentives for a kid who does not need any to pour his heart into every game. Guhle and Matheson did a strong job shutting down Connor McDavid.
The better analytics were turned in by the number one line, though, as against a terrific club, once again, Suzuki’s line was remarkably strong. It was a 73 share of Goals Expected which is outstanding considering the opposition. Montreal may not have any support scoring, but they have something excellent brewing from the top-three.
Wilde Goats
It was a low-event game. Every mistake is magnified in a low-event game. One error and it feels like it costs the entire game. Both clubs had difficulty creating offence until it finally opened up in the third period.
One big error stood out for two periods. Mike Matheson gave Josh Anderson a difficult pass to handle, but he did. The trouble started after that as Anderson decided to stickhandle. With Connor McDavid on the ice, usually, that’s going to be a problem.
McDavid made a terrific move on Samuel Montembeault and the Oilers had the lead they held for 40 minutes.
More concerning than the error for Anderson was a chance he had on an offensive rush in the second period. Anderson had an opportunity to take the puck to the net. He would usually drive hard to use his skating speed and strength. However, he did a buttonhook and made no attempt on the net at all.
This speaks to a lack of confidence, of course, but it also spoke to perhaps Anderson feeling a little concerned about his health. It was at this time last season that Anderson got a high-ankle sprain on his way to what would have been about a 25-goal season.
He got that injury driving to the net. In fact, he ended up in the net, taking it right off its moorings. Anderson may not be right physically due to that injury. He also may not be right emotionally due to that injury. He certainly is not the same player since that injury.
Anderson was a force last year. He was the third best forward on the club. Last year’s goal total would be third on the club this season, if he duplicated it. No one knows what Anderson is going through right now, but something is. The club hopes he can unlock what is wrong by October.
Wilde Cards
As speculated on the weekend, the Canadiens did call into action David Reinbacher to play the rest of the spring in North America. Reinbacher’s season ended in Switzerland weeks ago, but he had to wait there to make sure that his club didn’t have any more games left in the complicated relegation formula of the Swiss National League.
With Reinbacher’s obligations finished there, it was straight to Laval, where he will need to get some practices in before becoming comfortable enough to play. If all goes well, Reinbacher will play weekend games.
It will be the first real chance to evaluate Reinbacher against his peers. Not only will be it be interesting to see how he fares against the best of the American Hockey League, it will also be interesting to see how he stacks up against other defenders on the right side in Laval.
The entire right defence has NHL aspirations. Logan Mailloux has had an outstanding rookie season in the AHL, and Justin Barron has split his time between the the NHL and AHL. It will be fascinating in the final month of the regular to see who is the best of the three.
The Rocket have playoff aspirations. They are right on the cusp of a spot right now in the standings. GM Kent Hughes has indicated that he would like to help the Rocket to make the playoffs, so Joshua Roy or Jayden Struble may be sent back to help that cause at some point.
Hughes also indicated that he would not use Reinbacher at all in the NHL this season, but continue his development only in Laval this spring. The organization is hoping for a playoff spot, a long run, and a good conclusion to the season for all of the prospects who could use the important games.
Brian Wilde, a Montreal-based sports writer, brings you Call of the Wilde on globalnews.ca after each Canadiens game.
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