What is the worst lead in ice hockey? A two-goal lead? A three-goal lead? We don't really know anymore. Martin St-Louis would certainly say that there is no safe lead in today's NHL. We would have no choice but to agree with him. Especially considering his team is struggling to keep his team.
As they did earlier in the week in Dallas, the Habs gave themselves a three-goal priority against the visiting Rangers on Saturday night at the Bell Center. Once again he needed all his skills to win. The beauty of this is that the St. Louis troops can once again add this difficult victory to their wealth of experience.
Building a 3-0 lead against the best team in the Eastern Association is no easy task. Regardless of the final result, it's always good for your confidence to know that you can compete with the big teams.
“I would have liked us to keep the distance, but it's not easy against these teams,” said the Canadian coach. But I liked our push after the draw. »
Now it's important to learn to deal with these advances. But also that the “killer instinct” is sufficiently developed to nail the opponent’s coffin.
Like that golden opportunity that Cole Caufield, alone in the slot, missed just seconds before Adam Fox tied the game. Or that post that was hit by a shot from Jake Evans just before Kaiden Guhle received a penalty that could have been costly.
The survival instinct
One thing is certain, anyway. For his part, Samuel Montembeault is filled with the survival instinct. He faced 48 shots, his busiest night of the season. And he had to shine until the last second of overtime, when Jacob Trouba tried to pierce his body with a cannonball very close to the mask.
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And what about the save he made in the shootout against Mika Zibanejad? The Swede managed to defeat him with the one-handed feint once popularized by his compatriot Peter Forsberg. Beaten, Montembeault stretched his stick at the last moment to prevent the puck from crossing the red line.
The survival instinct, they tell you!
If some still doubt that Montembeault isn't the Canadiens' number one goalie, we have a problem. Especially when they run behind the team bench or occupy the Habs box game after game. The team from Montreal certainly has him to thank for their last two victories.
“He plays like number one,” said St-Louis happily after the game.
For their part, his teammates didn't hesitate to express their admiration for him after he parried Alexis Lafrenière, the third and final Rangers player to rush toward him during the shootout.
“Monty was standing in front of them [les Rangers]. He made some spectacular saves. “He was really excited about his performance,” said Brendan Gallagher, who scored his first goal in 25 games, as he returned to the dressing room. I also hope he's proud of himself because he's playing fantastically. »
From the diamond to the trapezoid
On the other hand, the outnumbered unit, which has experienced numerous breakdowns since the start of the season, was perfect three times against the second most productive massive attack on the Bettman circuit.
We could see that the team's strategists had made a slight but important change in the way they defended the Enclave. Each time the Rangers advanced the puck a little deeper, the Canadiens player on the opposite side moved a little closer to Samuel Montembeault to cover his blind side and make the cross-ice pass more difficult.
From the diamond we moved on to the trapeze. It's less glamorous, but it works.