It’s appropriate, while many are impatient for the rebuild to take hold in Montreal, for the Canadiens to play the Buffalo Sabres on Monday afternoon. The Sabres are in year 13 of their rebuild. They last made the playoffs in 2011, and they don’t look any better this year either.
Montreal came back to earn a 7-5 win in Buffalo.
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Head coach Martin St. Louis changed the lines for the contest, trying to ignite his offence. Juraj Slafkovsky was brought back onto the top line, but the first line wasn’t made whole as Cole Caufield was dropped down to the second. Kirby Dach stayed on the top line.
It’s an unusual move on the surface as Caufield and Suzuki are two of only three players producing at an acceptable rate this season. Caufield joined Alex Newhook and Jake Evans. A successful future does not have Evans in it as a second-line centre, but with Dach struggling to find his form after major reconstruction of his knee, the club doesn’t have a choice.
Changes were also seen on the defensive pairs as Kaiden Guhle was finally moved over to his more natural side on the left. Mike Matheson was asked to cross over to his unnatural side on the right. The club desperately needs Logan Mailloux and David Reinbacher to develop their games, because the lack of natural right-side defenders is hurting the club.
The second pair had Lane Hutson and David Savard. Savard is the only natural right-side defender on the entire team and he is up for a trade at the deadline, if the club wants to get some return on an expiring contract.
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So how did all of the changes look?
The top line had an excellent shift late in the first period, and what was best about it was it was an actual cycle. It feels like the number of times this season that the Canadiens offence has been created out of a cycle can be counted on one hand.
In the second frame, the line really got it rolling. Suzuki counted two goals in 22 seconds in the last minute of the frame for a 4-3 Montreal lead. Slafkovsky was the architect on the goals with excellent possession, using his big frame to win the puck. Dach was the second helper on both.
The top line’s analytics were excellent. They had a 71 expected goals share. They haven’t achieved that once all season. They haven’t even been in the 60s.
Caufield got back on the scoreboard with a power-play marker. It was his 11th goal of the season on a masterful pass-shot from Lane Hutson. Hutson sent it to goal with the clear intention of having Caufield deflect it. It was the first time this season that Hutson was put on the first wave of the power play.
Hutson had a strong game, getting a second assist on a setup of Emil Heineman. Hutson has 10 points on the season already. These are some special totals for a rookie defenceman. He is behind rookie points leader Logan Stankoven by only two.
Caufield then counted his second of the contest with a second power-play marker. That’s 12 on the season for Caufield as he scored from two feet away on a cross-crease pass from Slafkovsky, who finished the day with three helpers. Caufield now leads the NHL in goals this season.
The Canadiens needed this type of day for their confidence when everything they shot went in. The changes the head coach made to get a spark worked well. It could have been a much cleaner win with some better goaltending.
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The Habs were still a mess in the net and defensively in this one. On the first goal, Mike Matheson pinched when he had no hope of getting the puck, so he was caught 175 feet from goal. That allowed a Buffalo breakout that saw Guhle be aggressive on the forward, leaving Caufield as the only man back. Tage Thompson walked around Caufield like he wasn’t there.
On the third Sabres goal, the defence backed up into goaltender Cayden Primeau when they did not have to be so passive. This season, Montreal’s defenders are giving up high-slot shots so easily, relying on the goalies to make 20-foot saves. On a rush, the opposition shooter should be met at 40 feet from goal.
At the halfway mark in the contest, Primeau had let in three goals on nine shots for a .667 save percentage. Not all his fault. The quality of shot Montreal has allowed this season is the worst in the entire league. The club can’t defend. Simple as that.
However, when it was five allowed in 14 shots, St. Louis had seen enough. He brought in Samuel Montembeault. Primeau’s save percentage this season falls to .845. You have to score six times to win a game with that save percentage, so that’s what the Canadiens did.
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BPM’s Georges Laraque said Monday that Gerard Gallant, a former NHL head coach who previously worked as an assistant in Montreal, was seen in a Toronto cafe meeting with St. Louis and Canadiens general manager Kent Hughes. If they were meeting, it is to bring Gallant on in some coaching capacity.
Laraque says he has a photo of the meeting, though he has not shown that photo publicly.
The working media in Buffalo Monday followed up on the rumour during the afternoon contest.
The Canadiens are denying the rumour vehemently. Hughes said that he has never in his life talked to Gallant. Hughes says the information on the meeting is false.
To be continued. Or not.
Brian Wilde, a Montreal-based sports writer, brings you Call of the Wilde on globalnews.ca after each Canadiens game.
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