For one last time before the Christmas break, the Montreal Canadiens were lacing up their skates to take on the Boston Bruins on Tuesday night. While some games are played with less intensity when everyone is looking forward to their time off, that wasn’t the case with this tilt. For a second time in a row between the two rivals, there was a fight right from puck drop and another one before the first frame was over.
The game also marked Phillip Danault’s debut with the Habs since he was (re)acquired from the Los Angeles Kings right before the Christmas roster freeze. Wearing his familiar number 24, the centerman looked right at home wearing the bleu, blanc, rouge.
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While the game started with a lot of intensity, the host still largely dominated the first frame, not only in shots but in the quality of shots and opportunities. Within 15 minutes, Boston had 14 shots, several of which were not easy to deal with.
Odd-man rushes, power play chances from in close, one-timers, Jacob Fowler faced it all. Even though the Bruins finished the first period with a 2-1 lead, Fowler’s heroics would have made the situation much more dire.
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Ideally, the goals conceded wouldn’t have come when they did, just over a minute after the Habs had taken the lead and with 18 seconds left in the frame, but given that Fowler almost stood on his head all period long, he cannot be blamed.
After the Canadiens had tied up the game on a fantastic Ivan Demidov goal on a breakaway, Montreal thought it was about to get back in front when Boston was assessed a four-minute penalty for high-sticking.
Unfortunately for the Canadiens, it was not to be, as they failed to find the back of the net and created only one really menacing opportunity when Cole Caufield went in alone on Jeremy Swayman. Still, the masked man easily pushed aside his shot.
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I cannot for the life of me understand why Demidov wasn’t on the first wave of the power play anymore, having given his spot to Zachary Bolduc. I imagine it’s to try and get the latter going while improving his chemistry with Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield, but that can be done at even strength. In such a tight Eastern Conference race, it’s imperative to capitalize on opportunities.
Demidov’s creativity is a tool which the Canadiens cannot afford to do without. Even though he was still on the second unit, his chemistry with Noah Dobson is nowhere near as good as what he has with Lane Hutson, and the sophomore blueliner looked like he missed him dearly at times.
Not scoring on that four-minute man advantage was an absolute momentum killer and something the Canadiens just couldn’t afford, had the Bruins continued playing well, of course.
Over the course of the last few games, the team’s dynamic duo, Caufield and Suzuki, have looked a bit off. Almost as if they had both lost a great deal of confidence. It was never as apparent as when the two escaped on an odd-man rush. The captain passed the puck to the sniper, who elected to send it back to him, something he wasn’t expecting, and the scoring chance died right there—neither actually looked like they wanted to shoot on that play.
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Thankfully for Martin St-Louis, Boston decided to give Montreal another go on the power play, and things unravelled for them. An unsuccessful coach challenge brought about the first trip to the sin bin, but before it was even over, Tanner Jeannot took another minor for cross-checking. Minutes later, the hosts were also assessed a tripping call.
The result? Two power play goals, both of which came with Demidov on the ice with Caufield, Suzuki, and Slafkovsky. One was scored by Caufield, who put on quite a stickhandling display to fool Jeremy Swayman, and the other by Suzuki, who hit a home run, batting the puck mid-air. Hopefully, that might have been just what the doctor ordered for the two forwards.
In just over five minutes, the Habs scored four goals, two on the power play and two at even strength. It might have been a 6-2 win, but the score is misleading. As mentioned above, Fowler didn’t have it easy in the first frame, and he had a big hand in the win, but so did Hutson and Dobson with three assists each, while the captain got a goal and an assist.
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The young netminder’s performance, which follows on from his first career shutout, won’t make life easy for the Canadiens’ organization; how could they send him down to the Laval Rocket after this?
With that win, the Canadiens climb up to second place in the Atlantic Division, but the win came at a cost, with Alexandre Texier leaving the game because of an upper-body injury. The Habs now have a much-deserved Christmas break, and they’ll get back on the ice on Saturday at 5:00 PM when they take on the Tampa Bay Lightning in the traditional Florida trip over the holidays.
Follow Karine on X @KarineHains Bluesky @karinehains.bsky.social and Threads @karinehains.
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