Habs Lose After Late Calls Take Control of The Game

As bad as Sam Montembeault was tonight yet again, the main reason for the loss comes down to how the officiating favoured the Oilers late in the 3rd period when the Canadiens were leading 5-3 with just over 10 minutes to go in the game. First, they called a boarding penalty on Juraj Slafkovsky for essentially just being too strong for  Oilers defender Ty Emberson, who fell down in the corner (the refs admitted to Brendan Gallagher that they made a mistake). This started a one-sided run of questionable calls in the Oilers’ favour.

After the Habs killed the Slafkovsky penalty, it wasn’t long before Mike Matheson got called for a weak tripping call on Connor McDavid. On the ensuing power play, Leon Draisaitl scored to cut the lead to 5-4, and after the play, Josh Anderson slightly shot the puck towards centre ice in anger. He was given an unsportsmanlike penalty, where the Habs, now flustered by the call, lost focus, and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins was able to tie the game up 58 seconds after Draisaitl’s goal.

In just a matter of about 2 minutes, the game was changed by the refs who were favouring the Oilers for most of the night. The Canadiens got just 1 power play all game, and missed calls against the Oilers on numerous occasions. These are honestly the losses that hurt the most as the team deserved a better fate.  Unfortunately with the mix of the refs and Montembeault having another bad game where everything unravelled pretty quickly, the Habs left Edmonton with 0 points in the standings.

From the start, the Habs were the better team and dominated the majority of the first period. Alex Newhook got the scoring started when he jumped on a rebound from a Lane Hutson right in front of the net.

Unfortunately before the end of the period, Oilers forward David Tomasek took a shot that bounced off Newhook’s skate and in to tie the game up with his first NHL goal. The Habs went into the room after 1 period unlucky that they were tied with the Oilers while clearly being the better team.

Halfway through the 2nd period, the Oilers went up 2-1 after Adam Henrique tipped a Jake Walman wrister past Montembeault. Then a few minutes later, Andrew Mangiapane took a pass from Darnell Nurse to beat Montembeault shortside with a goal that Montembeault. This was a goal that was tough for Montembeault to give up as this was his 3rd goal allowed on just 11 shots.

Despite, being down 3-1, the Canadiens rallied back into the game near the end of the 2nd period with 3 goals in just 1:52. It started with Josh Anderson who beat Calvin Pickard in front of the net, thanks to a beautiful pass by Jake Evans to cut the lead to 3-2.

Then, 1:03 later, Noah Dobson sends over a beautiful pass to Cole Caufield, who makes an even prettier move to deke out Pickard to tie the game at 3.

Caufield would score again just 49 seconds after that by completing a 2-on-1 where Suzuki gave him a perfect pass to get his 2nd of the night to get the Habs back in the lead.

In the 3rd period, it was Newhook’s turn again to score as he completed a pass from Oliver Kapanen to give the Canadiens a 5-3 lead.

The Habs were looking in complete control after that until the bad call on Slafkovsky. After Draisaitl and Nugent-Hopkins tied the game up with their respective power-play goals. Both teams kept pressing for the winning goal, but sadly for the Habs it was the Oilers that got it with 1:09 left in regulation. Vasili Podkolzin beat Montembeault with a backhand shot that he should have probably been able to stop.

So while the refs definitely played a big part in the Habs’ loss, Montembeault deserves a good share of the blame for not being able to make a big save when it mattered most. To be fair to him, he did make a few big saves on the penalty kill when it was 5-3, but stopping just 23 of 29 shots he’s faced in absolutely unacceptable, especially when your team scores 5 goals. It wasn’t even like Habs played awful defensively, it’s just every possible bad bounce when Montembeault is in the goal lately goes into the net.

Something needs to give on all those bad bounces, because Montembeault needs to figure out a way to get back to the guy he was last year, or it could be a very long season for him. Right now, he can no longer be trusted on most nights; therefore, we should expect Dobes again on Saturday against the Vancouver Canucks.

At the end of the day, the Habs akaters played a great game until the flurry of questionable penalties came late in the game. It sucks how it played out but sometimes that’s how things go.

How did you feel the players played in front of Montembeault on Thursday night?