Brock Nelson Leads The Way As Avs Crush Habs

The first thing that they can learn from this is that no matter how safe a lead can be, they shouldn’t stop pushing, as the Avalanche never stopped pressuring the Habs, even in the 3rd period when the score seemed out of reach, because it gets players in the right mindset to never take a shift off. This is a clear winner’s mentality, and what other teams like the Habs need to take note of to be the team to beat in the NHL. What this shows is that the Canadiens should still try to push for offence right until the final buzzer. That doesn’t mean to take high-risk, high-reward chances, but to not be afraid to push for odd-man rushes if they are available.

The Habs are currently learning how to close out games, as they are now in the playoff contender part of the rebuild. Even though this game featured a massive lead, the style of play the Avalanche played by pushing right up until there were about 2 minutes left is what the Habs need to take note of.

The other thing that a game like Saturday shows the Habs is that quick transition offence can be key to a contending team’s identity. Therefore, the Habs don’t need to necessarily worry about getting bigger but can also just make sure that they continue to add players who are great in transition. Overall, being good in transition is something that has helped the Canadiens score a huge chunk of goals this season. With that being said, this loss was not all bad for the team.

Considering they started the game off the momentum of their recent 3-game winning streak, the Habs threw lots at Blackwood early in the first period, outshooting the Avalanche 7-2 in the first 7 minutes but weren’t able to capitalize on their early dominance. Unfortunately things started to shift when the Avalanche took advantage of their great transition offence to get through the Habs’ forwards and end up on a 3-on-2, where known Habs killer Brock Nelson beat Jakub Dobes with a good wrist shot from the slot to open the scoring.

Despite the Avs going up 1-0, the Canadiens were still pushing hard to tie the game with no luck. The Habs’ momentum really only evaporated after the Avs scored their 2nd goal of the game. Nelson would beat Dobes with a shot from the slot that started from a speedy individual effort by Ross Colton up ice, where he fed Nelson for the goal. However, Gabriel Landeskog bumped into Dobes after he and Josh Anderson were tangled up going towards the net, which led to a coach’s challenge on the play.

There was an angle on the play that showed that it was Landeskog who initiated the contact. However, the video review team and the referees on the ice determined it was Anderson who caused the contact between the two power forwards that resulted in Dobes getting knocked down on the shot, therefore leading to the Avalanche going up 2-0 and getting a power play on the play. To make matters worse, it was announced later during the 2nd period that the shot had hit Landeskog before going in, meaning without that contact, the goal likely wouldn’t have happened. As a result of the controversial decision by the league, everything started to unravel for the Habs.

Early in the 2nd period, after a clean Nelson faceoff win, Brent Burns wrist-shot a screened shot past Dobes right off the draw to give the Avalanche a 3-0 lead.

A few minutes after that, Mike Matheson tried a risky play at the offensive blue line, where he got his pocket picked by former Hab Arturri Lehkonen, who sent Nelson in on a breakaway. He missed the net, but as the Habs players came back scrambling on defence, Martin Necas would get the puck and get the puck back to Nelson, where he scored on his 2nd chance with the defence out of place to put the Avs up 4-0. Following the goal, many people threw their hats, thinking Nelson had a hat trick, but just a few minutes earlier was when the 2nd goal of the game was switched over to Landeskog.

The Habs would finally get on the board just before the halfway point of the 2nd period, when Juraj Slafkovsky sent over a beautiful cross-ice pass to Ivan Demidov, where he made no mistake, finally beating Blackwood to make the game 4-1.  This goal gave the Habs some life, but considering how well Blackwood was playing, it still felt too little too late.

To show just how nothing was going the Canadiens’ way on Saturday, Demidov would send Florian Xhekaj in on a partial breakaway, but as he attempted to shoot the puck, his stick exploded, and he was unable to make anything of the perfect chance for his first NHL goal.

Then, while at 4-on-4, Landeskog and MacKinnon would connect to make the game 5-1 before the end of the 2nd period, truly putting away any chance of a comeback to bed.

Early in the 3rd period, following Noah Dobson pinching in for a prime scoring chance, the Avalanche managed to get the rebound, which would lead to Necas and Devon Toews going in on a 2-on-1 that would end in the back of the net after the puck bounced off Matheson’s stick and past Dobes to give the Avalanche a 6-1 lead.

Lane Hutson would score his 4th of the season off a great set up play on the power play where he wired it past Blackwood to cut the lead to 6-2. Both Habs goals on the day were very nice but unfortunately won’t get the notice for that considering how out of reach the game was when the goals were scored.

The Avalanche’s final goal would come on the power play, with Gabriel Landeskog getting his 2nd of the game at the side of the net.

It was a very tough game for Jakub Dobes, but the majority of the goals were not his fault and were often due to shoddy defence or bad bounces, but it is definitely the type of game that can hurt a goaltender’s confidence. The reality is that Dobes was looking really good in his two previous starts and has had situations before where one start threw him off his game. With that being said, he needs to just put the game behind him and forget about it.

Despite Saturday’s loss, the Canadiens had an overall successful road trip where they collected 4 of a possible 6 points this week, which is better than many people thought. The Habs are also likely very tired after 3 games in 4 days, but they will need to figure out how to manage their energy because this is the first part of a long 16-game in 28-day span that they will be dealing with over the next while.

The Habs will look to put this one game behind them when they take on their rival Ottawa Senators on Tuesday night at 7:00 pm ET at the Bell Centre.

Do you think the Habs will bounce back on Tuesday?