After a successful weekend featuring back-to-back wins, the Montreal Canadiens gave the hometown fans a lackluster performance on Tuesday night, getting defeated 8-2 by the Seattle Kraken.
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The visitors were led by Brandon Montour, who tallied his first career hat trick. He helped the Kraken build upon their early 4-0 lead with goals in the second and third periods.
Meanwhile, Sam Montembeault departed the game after giving up five goals on ten shots, while Cole Caufield and Josh Anderson were the only two players to score for the home team.
There’s not much time to dwell on the loss since the team hits the road to face Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals on Thursday night.
However, it’s time to talk about what went wrong on Tuesday.
Blown Assignments at Every Position
The Canadiens just won two games back-to-back in 24 hours last weekend, and even in a blowout loss to the New York Rangers last Tuesday night, their execution was not as bad as it was against the Kraken.
Whether defensemen left players open and alone in high-danger areas, forwards did not cover the point, or Montembeault never made the easy save, the Kraken just made an NHL game look like a practice.
Interestingly, the TSN announcers mentioned that this blowout loss was not a typical “throw the tape away” performance. Instead, head coach Martin St-Louis could use a few moments from this contest as teaching opportunities.
Overall, it wasn’t pretty. However, unlike other times the Canadiens have fallen behind in games, they didn’t have any bounce back in their performances, despite some moments of big hits and scrappy gatherings after whistles in the third period.
Caufield Continues to Defy Expectations
The last time a Montreal player was the NHL’s leading goal scorer was Guy Lafleur in 1977-78 when he tallied 60 goals. Caufield is on pace for a 74-goal season, which most likely will happen, but he continues to defy the odds and expectations with his ninth goal in ten games.
As a two-time 20-goal scorer, everyone assumed he’d reach at least 25 again in 2024-25 and possibly break through to 30 or more. However, since changing his number from 22 to 13, he’s become one of the league’s best snipers, tying New Jersey’s Nico Hischier for the league lead.
There’s no denying Caufield’s talent, but even Auston Matthews didn’t reach 70 goals last season, a milestone so few players have. So, instead of expecting the young Canadiens forward to get 20 or 30, the bar moving forward should be set at 50.
Until he goes into a scoring slump, the possibility of becoming the team’s first 50-goal scorer since 1987-87 grows with every tally.
Special Teams Is Not a Disaster
Last year, one of the campaign’s ongoing discussions focused on the Canadiens’ inability to score on the man advantage and prevent opponents from beating them on the penalty kill.
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After ranking in the bottom third of the league in both categories, St-Louis has flipped the script this season and has guided Montreal to some respectable numbers through the team’s first ten games.
Even with two blowout losses on their calendar in October, the Canadiens currently rank 10th on the powerplay at 22%. Meanwhile, their penalty kill, which took a hit on Tuesday night against Seattle, remains respectable at 83.8%, good enough for 10th overall.
In a season with many peaks and valleys, the Canadiens have managed to clean up one of the weakest areas of their game. As the growing pains continue in the rebuild, becoming a better club in special teams will go a long way toward returning to contender status.
Canadiens & Kraken Trivia Answers
How did you score in our Game Day Trivia quiz? Here are the answers.
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Mike Hoffman
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Jake Allen
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Johnathan Kovacevic
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Cale Fleury
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Nick Suzuki
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Cayden Primeau
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Jake Evans
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Metropolitans
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Shane Wright
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Yanni Gourde
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