The Montreal Canadiens were back in action at the Bell Centre tonight as they hosted the Los Angeles Kings and their former penalty kill specialist, Joel Armia. The big Finn wasn’t the only former Habs on the ice, though, since Philip Danault, Corey Perry and Joel Edmundson now all ply their trade in California.
Canadiens: Growth All Around
Canadiens Will Attempt To Put An End To An Eight-Game Losing Streak Against The Kings
Canadiens: For The Last Two Weekends Michael Hage…
Reigning Calder Trophy winner Lane Hutson was playing the 100th game of his young career, and the 62nd overall pick of the 2022 draft wasn’t going to let the milestone go by with no fanfare. With less than a minute left in the first period, he found himself involved in a three-on-three in the Kings’ zone with Jake Evans and Josh Anderson, and his clever play allowed Anderson to get the puck all alone on the wing with ample time to pick his spot and give the Canadiens a 1-0 lead after 20 minutes.
It was a good first frame for the 21-year-old who was passed over 61 times before the Habs finally claimed him, a move 31 teams now probably regret dearly. The more he plays, the better the blueliner gets. Whenever the opponent thinks they have him beat, he finds a way to come back in the play through sheer determination and skill. He was also impressive in the third period when he was battling in the offensive zone by the boards with two players; he didn’t come out with the puck, but he held it long enough to receive some much-needed help, and Montreal didn’t lose possession.
Of course, there was that play when Joel Armia was able to pick his pocket to score LA’s fourth goal, but that was the exception rather than the rule.
Jack (@MidWestLAFan) on X
JOEL ARMIA REVENGE GAME #GoKingsGo
For most teams, giving up a goal with less than a minute left in a period is a gut punch. For the Kings, it was a wake-up call; they stormed the Canadiens’ territory like the Canadians stormed Juno Beach in Normandy 81 years ago with just as much success.
A lost faceoff by Jake Evans led to a Joel Edmunston goal with a shot from the point, which didn’t appear to get tipped. Then, on a delayed penalty call, the Habs were unable to regain possession of the puck, and the Kings played six-on-five for quite a while, forcing Montreal to run around after the puck. Eventually, Quinton Byfield scored an easy goal to make it 2-1.
Just over a minute later, the puck slowly came in from in front of Samuel Montembeault’s net, and instead of freezing it, he elected to give it a little paddle push. A fraction of a second later, Kevin Fiala was making the score 3-1 LA. That was an inexplicable move by the goaltender, and that had a gut-punch effect on the Habs.
Emmanuel Favre (@emfavre) on X
L’offrande de Samuel Montembeault à unser 🇨🇭Kevin Fiala
That definitely won’t help the Quebec-born goaltender’s confidence, something he has struggled with this season. When asked if he was worried about that after the game, though, Martin St-Louis held firm:
No, I don’t think I’m worried. I think we have two goalies…we’ve played pretty well as a group [this season], but we weren’t sharp in front of Monty tonight. So no, not worried.
–
Will that translate to Montembeault getting another game on Thursday night because the team didn’t play well in front of him? I highly doubt it, but St-Louis is not the kind of coach who throws his players under the bus; he’s never going to say that he’s worried.
Juraj Slafkovsky and Joe Veleno didn’t have good games. Slafkovsky has been doing a good job of playing to his identity so far this season, and that’s when he’s most effective. On Tuesday night, he was trying to do too much. In the end, he had only 12:12 of ice time against the Kings, and before this game, his lowest total was 15:26.
In the last two frames, St-Louis made him skip a few turns, sending Ivan Demidov out with Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield. The first occurrence came not too long after the power forward tried to do a Demidov-like pass on the power play, but without having his deceptiveness.
There were also two occurrences in the third frame where a promising attack died because of an ill-advised pass by the winger, one when he was entering with speed and tried to backhand a pass that was easily picked off and the other one when he tried to pass through the player who was covering him. Asked why he had sent Demidov out with Caufield and Suzuki, the coach explained:
I think I was switching things up, trying to see if something stuck there, you know, just coaching at that point in time and trying to read where we are, who’s going.
–
Pressed about whether that combination had been on the back of his mind for a while, he replied:
It’s not the first time I’ve done that.
–
Which brings me back to St-Louis will not throw one of his players under the bus. If he’s unhappy with Slafkovsky’s play, he’s going to take it up with him in the room before he discusses it with the media, and that’s the way it should be, really.
As for Veleno, he spent 10:23 on the ice, and he was far from impressive. On the Kings’ first goal, his attempt at a block came too late, and in open play, he doesn’t seem to “gel” with Evans and Anderson. In fact, late in the third, he didn’t know where to go as Anderson was trying to create some offence, and they ended up bumping into one another.
This 5-1 defeat makes it nine losses in a row against Los Angeles and it’s easy to understand why St-Louis said he’s glad they are in t he Western Conference.
The Canadiens will be back on the ice Wednesday in Brossard as they get ready to host the Dallas Stars on Thursday night.
Follow Karine on X @KarineHains Bluesky @karinehains.bsky.social and Threads @karinehains.
Bookmark The Hockey News Canadiens’ page for all the news and happenings around the Canadiens.
Join the discussion by signing up to the Canadiens’ roundtable on The Hockey News.
Subscribe to The Hockey News at THN.com/free. Get the latest news and trending stories by subscribing to our newsletter here.
