Late Giveaway Leads To Heartbreaking Loss For Habs

Thursday night was the first time all season that the Canadiens got above a .900 save percentage and lost in regulation. Unfortunately, on a night when the goaltender at the other end was red-hot, it wouldn’t even matter. Although the Habs had a few chances to get a second goal before the Red Wings struck.

Dobes finished the night with a very respectable 25 saves on 27 shots as he stood tall for the majority of the night. The one area that he struggled with was his rebound control, but luckily his defence was always there to get the puck out of harm’s way. In reality, the goals he did allow had nothing to do with his rebound control, but it will be something that needs to be cleaned up in the near future.

Despite the loss it could be argued that the Canadiens were actually the better team for most of the night but Gibson was just better all around and the bounces just weren’t going their way. Meanwhile, DeBrincat finished the night with 3 points (1 goal and 2 assists) as he was a threat all night long before he finally capitalized.

The first period was scoreless, but it seemed that the Habs had the best chances early as they outshot the Red Wings 12-8 in the frame. A weird pattern that I’ve noticed is that if the Canadiens outplay their opponents in the first period but don’t score, they usually end up losing the game and the opposing team bounces back in the following periods. While on Thursday that was the case to a certain point, the Habs still managed to continue outplaying the Red Wings for most of the game.

As good as that is, it doesn’t put points in the standings, and those small victories don’t matter anymore, as it’s about the progress of the team going forward, which means getting those points in tight games. The positive is that this team is learning to work through adversity, but hopefully it can translate to making playoffs in the end.

The 2nd period would be much of the same, with both goaltenders keeping the puck out of the net for the majority of the period, as the Habs were approaching 6 full periods without a goal on Gibson. Luckily that streak would end with a power play goal late in the 2nd period. Juraj Slafkovsky would finish a passing play in his office from the slot set up by Lane Hutson, Nick Suzuki, and Cole Caufield to open the scoring with 2:15 left in the middle frame. The Slovak forward extended his point streak to 5 games with the marker, while Caufield and Suzuki extended theirs to 4 games. This goal would allow the Habs to take a 1-0 lead into the 3rd period. Unfortunately, with the bounces not being in their favour, it would go downhill from there.

Just 2:14 into the 3rd period, the Red Wings would have a bounce go their way to get the game all tied up at 1. A Patrick Kane point shot would go off of J.T. Compher’s leg in front and in the net. There was nothing Dobes could do as it was just a bad a bad bounce for him and the Habs that the goal happened. In fact Noah Dobson even had Compher boxed out from being able to get the puck with his stick but Kane seemed to strategically make the shot go a bit wide so a tip could be possible. At the same time, Alex Newhook’s attempt at a block was awful on the play which clearly led to the puck even getting to towards the net.

The majority of the 3rd period saw both teams playing safe hockey, not trying to make any mistakes. In terms of chances for the Habs, there was none better than when Jake Evans had a chance to backhand the puck into a wide-open net, but he missed and hit Gibson’s pads to cause a scramble where the Habs couldn’t take advantage.

With 3:25 left in regulation, the Red Wings would get their game-winning goal thanks to a backbreaking mistake by Matheson. The play started with the Red Wings dumping the puck out of their zone and into the Habs’ end, where Matheson went to get the puck, but unfortunately he fumbled a bouncing puck right onto DeBrincat’s stick before losing his footing, giving the Red Wings’ top scorer a clear lane to deke out Dobes for the goal. For the 2nd time in 3 games, the Habs allow a late goal, which likely lost them an easy point from a defensive mistake. However, this goal likely hurts more as it’s more about a bad bounce, but Matheson falling really just makes the whole situation worse.

Afterwards, the Habs attempted to tie the game, but that type of goal often kills a team’s confidence, which seems like was the case on Thursday night as they didn’t get any great chances with the goalie pulled. With the net empty, DeBrincat would collect his 3rd point of the night by passing it to Andrew Copp, who put it into the empty cage for a 3-1 final to tie the Habs in the standings.

It was a game that was easily winnable but a mix of bad bounces, facing a hot goaltender and a bad reaction to bobbled puck lost the Habs at the very least an important point in the Playoff race. Now, they can’t afford to lose on Saturday against the Islanders or they will find themselves on the outside looking in for a playoff spot. Hopefully they can bounce back with a big win after such a heartbreaking loss. At the end of the day, facing such adversity should help them become a stronger team down the road but they definitely need to gain more playoff experience to grow into a contender in the next few years.

How are you feeling about the Habs playoff chances today after Thursday’s loss?