The Montreal Canadiens hosted the Dallas Stars on Thursday night, facing a surging club featuring a bevy of talented players. The Stars left no doubt as to the better team, emerging with an easy 7-0 win.
Lets discuss some of the high, or rather, low points!
Statistically speaking, it was far from Montreals worst start this season.
But you could tell things were going to go horribly wrong from the very-get go, especially after a solid play by Kirby Dach not only led to a heavy dose of pain for the 24-year-old forward, it also resulted in a 2-0 lead for the Stars.
A few moments later, Alex Newhook was forced to leave the game after he was hauled down, slamming into the boards feet-first. Newhook did not return to the game, which is not surprising given he already has a serious ankle injury in his medical history.
The Stars quickly established a 7-0 lead, making it a perfect moment to reflect on some of the unforced errors made by head coach Martin St-Louis in the last few weeks.
While its true that Jakub Dobes had a very difficult game, its also true his head coach left him on the bench for an extended stretch, despite Dobes being among the best goaltenders in the league.
You cant fault the young goaltender for having a hard time preparing, especially after he played well enough to earn more starts. He did everything he could to ensure a little stability in his starts, and yet, he was allowed to go cold.
In that same vein, forcing the issue with Samuel Montembeault only removed any semblance of confidence left in the veteran, as he was clearly struggling to make easy saves. You could argue it would have been much wiser to protect Montembeault as he worked out his yips.
But as is always the case in hockey, Thursdays loss wasnt just a matter of questionable coaching.
St-Louis did not use his timeout as the Habs were being outplayed by a wide margin, a longstanding issue when it comes to his game management, but the players were also responsible for the debacle.
The 5-0 goal was a perfect example.
Instead of reacting to Lane Hutsons pinch, Joe Veleno drives down deep, giving Hutson a terrible passing option. And then Juraj Slafkovsky did not pick up on the pinch either, opting to make a line change instead of covering.
The NHL goal visualizer gives us the clearest view of what happened. None of the players on the ice decided to cover for their defenceman who was desperately trying to generate some much-needed offence.
We often use the cliché that the tape should be burned after a bad game, but Id argue the opposite is necessary in this case. The Canadiens need to realize that theyve been able to tread water because Dobes was on fire, and Nick Suzukis line was playing some of the most dominant hockey of their careers.
Now that neither is the case, the band-aid removal has revealed a nasty wound.
Montreal needs to use Thursdays loss as a good opportunity to improve upon some of the clear-cut issues holding the lineup back.
The Montreal Canadiens are back in action on Saturday, facing the Boston Bruins at the Bell Centre, with the puck drop scheduled for 7 pm ET.
All Montreal Canadiens statistics are 5v5 unless otherwise noted, via Natural Stat Trick.
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