Habs Have Rough Night At The Office As They Fall To Hungry Blue Jackets Team

The biggest worry for the Canadiens after Saturday’s loss is definitely the status of Noah Dobson, who got hurt blocking a shot in the 2nd period and didn’t return. Dobson, who leads the league in shot blocks, blocked a shot off his hand that made him leave the game. An update on Sunday morning stated that he will be out for 2 weeks with an upper body injury. His shot blocking and his skating abilities have become a key component to the team’s recent penalty kill success. In fact, Dobson was missed greatly in the 3rd period when the Habs allowed their first goal on the penalty kill in their last 7 games.

The Habs also called up David Reinbacher to make his NHL debut in relation to Dobson’s injury. However, with all the right-handed defensemen on the roster, there will be pressure for him to perform. With that being said, hopefully Alexandre Carrier is good to go for Game 1 so that not all the pressure is on Reinbacher to be the only right-handed defenseman.

It was a tough night for Jakub Dobes, who was left out to dry on a few occasions by the defence in front of him. He wasn’t getting the help from the defence like he usually has, and it resulted in the Habs digging themselves into a hole early in the game. Dobes allowed more than 3 goals for the first time in his last 13 games. The last time he got lit up by the opposition was over a month ago when he allowed 6 goals against the San Jose Sharks. Saturday’s game proved that Dobes can’t save his team from all their defensive mistakes every single night. At the same time, the defence had been a lot better for the last while aside from Saturday, where it seemed the Habs as a whole lacked drive to win.

The Habs’ struggles in Saturday’s game started from the puck drop as Blue Jackets captain Boone Jenner would open the scoring just 1:13 into the game. Jenner’s goal came off a big rebound from a Zach Werenski point shot that allowed him to get inside and backhand the puck past Dobes to start the scoring in the game.

Just 4:29 later, the Blue Jackets would strike again thanks to Charlie Coyle, and the Habs would find themselves in a 2-goal hole really early on. Coyle would capitalize on a defensive breakdown where he would carry the puck up ice before completing a give-and-go with Jake Christiansen, who would send it to him to tap into the net in front of the net.

Luckily for the Habs, former Blue Jacket forward Josh Anderson would get on the board to cut the deficit to 2-1 before the end of the period. Anderson would score in a similar fashion to Coyle as Jake Evans would send him a cross-ice pass in front of the net, where he beat Blue Jackets goaltender Jet Greaves by tipping it past him. With his assist, Evans recorded his 100th career assist. Meanwhile, Lane Hutson got a secondary assist on the play, which was his 76th point of the season, tying Guy Lapointe for the 3rd most points ever in a season by a defenseman.

While the Canadiens showed that they were gaining life by getting chances to tie it before the end of the first period, that would quickly get ruined early in the middle frame. Just 1:24 in, the Habs would allow Blue Jackets sniper Kirill Marchenko to break in and unleash a deadly shot from the slot to make it 3-1. This goal really hurt the Habs, as they really came back after that marker.

It would eventually lead to former Habs forward Sean Monahan putting the Blue Jackets up 4-1. Monahan’s goal came off a weak clearing attempt by Jayden Struble that went straight to Kent Johnson and over to Monahan, who beat Dobes to widen the lead. The 2nd period as a whole saw nothing working for the Habs as they would be outshot 14-5 in the frame with no real high-danger chances.

Fortunately, the Habs would score a power play goal early in the 3rd period thanks to Cole Caufield’s 51st of the season that had him connect on a play with both Juraj Slafkovsky and Nick Suzuki on the rush for the goal. Caufield’s goal came with under 10 seconds left on the power play, where he scored from just before the goal line as he snuck it under the bar like he often does. With that goal, Caufield is now just 1 goal back of Nathan MacKinnon for the league lead in goals, with the Habs having 2 games to go and the Colorado Avalanche having 3 games left. It will be hard for Caufield to win the Rocket Richard Trophy, but it is still doable. Suzuki’s assist on the goal means that he is at 99 points and just one point away from being the first Habs player to reach 100 points in a season since Mats Naslund 40 years ago.

For awhile, the Canadiens got life and looked like they could possibly get a 3rd goal. However, while on the penalty kill, it appeared that Jenner scored his 2nd goal of the game after Blue Jackets players banged away at Dobes before it finally went in. After consulting the play for a moment, the referees determined that Dobes was interfered with, and it was decided as no goal. The Blue Jackets decided not to challenge, and it allowed the Habs to stay perfect on the penalty kill over their past 7 games.

Unfortunately, their streak of killing off 18 straight penalties would end midway through the 3rd period when Coyle would score his 2nd of the night. It was a tic-tac-toe play where Adam Fantilli gave it to Marchenko, who found Coyle alone in front for a tap-in goal.

The penalty kill without Dobson definitely looked a little disorganized, and it will be hard for them without them unless Reinbacher really shines in that role over the few games. Either way, his loss will be felt a lot more than the 5-2 defeat to the playoff-hungry Blue Jackets team, who will be in need of winning out to get that final playoff spot. Two weeks without Dobson, on the other hand, will hurt the penalty kill and the overall defensive core, as his 22:29 a night will be hard to replace early in the postseason.

The Habs will be back in action on Sunday evening at 6:00 pm ET as they head to New York to take on the Islanders. For the 2nd night in a row they will be facing a team fighting for their playoff lives for that last spot in the Metropolitan Division.

How do you think the Habs will do without Dobson?