After missing their first opportunity to confirm a playoff berth against the Ottawa Senators on Friday night, the Montreal Canadiens had another chance against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday, but they couldn’t seal the deal once again. 

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Kaiden Guhle’s physicality

After the 5-2 defeat in Ottawa, many hoped to see Arber Xhekaj in the Canadiens’ lineup on Saturday night. The gritty blueliner has a knack for landing bone-crushing hits, and the Leafs’ stars are not particularly fond of that style of play. However, lineup decisions are all up to Martin St-Louis and he elected not to use him.

Thankfully for St-Louis, though, Kaiden Guhle was in fine form and was throwing his body around with a purpose. In a single shift, he managed to rock two Leafs players, including John Tavares. That didn’t sit well with Toronto, and Max Domi took exception. After coming on the ice, he went straight to Guhle to ask him to dance instead of getting involved in the play. Both men got fighting majors, but Domi got a minor for unsportsmanlike conduct.

The Canadiens couldn’t score on the man advantage, but it was still a good night for Guhle, who bounced back after a tough outing on Friday.

Shooting Is Good But…

The Great One once said that 100% of the shots you don’t take don’t go in, and he was right. The same goes for 100% of the shots you take that don’t make it to the net. After 40 minutes of action, the Canadiens only had seven shots, but they had 37 shot attempts. Some missed the net, some were blocked, but the bottom line is that opening shooting lanes is important.

Even though only seven of those attempts made it on net, according to Natural Stat Trick, scoring chances were 15-8 Montreal, and high-danger shot attempts were 8-6 for them as well through 40 minutes, but the Maple Leafs also had 14 shot blocks. This was a Toronto side playing with only five blueliners, which made it even more impressive.

About Lane Hutson

Much has been written about the rookie defenseman’s offensive game, but tonight, we got yet another example of just how good he can be defensively. In the third frame, he was dispossessed at the Toronto blueline, but he back-checked perfectly, keeping the positioning on Matthew Knies and neutralizing what could have been a scoring chance.

In a tight game with a top team, Hutson played just under 23 minutes tonight, and he was not shielded, just like he hasn’t been all year. He keeps playing big minutes against the best players, and he still finds a way to be a factor.

Jacob Dobes had a fantastic game. He stopped 34 of the 35 shots he faced. It wasn’t always pretty, but he was efficient. At one point on the penalty kill, the Leafs were skating around the zone and testing the youngster, who actually spun on himself in the crease, looking very much like a Wayne Gretzky tabletop hockey goaltender.

The more shots he got, the more confident he looked and I like how aggressive he is in net. He’s not as positionally sound as Carey Price was, far from it, but when he’s on his game, there’s no hesitation in his play. Sometimes, that means he overcommits, and the net can get pushed off its moorings, but nobody should complain as long as the puck stays out.

Despite the loss, this was a great game for the Canadiens. They battled hard, stuck with it, and overcame quite a bit of adversity, including a five-on-three penalty kill that shouldn’t have been, as the coach clearly stated in his post-game presser.

Mike Pezzetta played his 200th game in the NHL last night, and as much as everyone loves the human, it’s time to get the player out of the lineup. If there’s any kind of accountability under St-Louis, he has to scratch him after the bad holding the stick penalty he took in the third frame. The Leafs couldn’t capitalize on the man-advantage, but still enough is enough and with a lineup spot being needed for Ivan Demidov, the gritty forward just made the coach’s job easier by putting himself on the chopping block. 

Thanks to the one point collected from that overtime loss, the Detroit Red Wings are now officially eliminated, meaning the Columbus Blue Jackets are the only team that can still catch Montreal. The Habs have a five-point lead over the Jackets, but the Ohio outfit has a game in hand. They will play on Sunday against the Washington Capitals, whom they destroyed 7-0 on Saturday. However, not everyone was dressed for the Caps.

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