What is the worst lead in hockey? A two-goal lead? A three-goal lead? We don’t really know anymore. Martin St-Louis would surely say that there is no sure lead in today’s NHL. We would have no choice but to agree with him. Especially seeing his team struggling to keep theirs.
As it did in Dallas at the start of the week, the Habs gave themselves a three-goal priority against the Rangers, the visitors on Saturday evening at the Bell Centre. Once again, it took all his skill to win. The beauty of it is that the St. Louis troops will once again be able to add this difficult victory to their wealth of experience.
Because building a 3-0 lead against the best team in the Eastern Association is no easy feat. No matter the end result, it’s always good for your confidence to know you can hold your own against the big teams.
“I would have liked us to keep the gap, but it’s not easy against these teams,” said the Canadian coach. But I liked our push after they tied the game.”
Now it is essential to learn how to maintain these advances. But also, to have the “killer instinct” sufficiently developed to nail the opponent’s coffin.
Like this golden opportunity missed by Cole Caufield, alone in the slot, a few seconds before Adam Fox created the tie. Or this post hit by a shot from Jake Evans just before Kaiden Guhle received a punishment that could have been costly.
The Survival Instinct
In any case, one thing is certain. Samuel Montembeault, for his part, is imbued with the survival instinct. He faced 48 shots, his busiest night of the season. And he had to shine until the very last second of overtime when Jacob Trouba tried to pierce his body with a cannonball very close to the mask.
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And what about the save he made against Mika Zibanejad during the shootout. The Swede managed to beat him with the one-handed feint popularized, at another time, by his compatriot Peter Forsberg. Beaten, Montembeault stretched the stick at the last moment to prevent the puck from crossing the red line.
The survival instinct, they tell you!
Now, if some still doubt that Montembeault is not the Canadiens’ number one goalie, we have a problem. Especially if they walk game after game behind the team bench or occupy the Habs box. Because the Montreal team certainly owes its last two victories to him.
“He plays like a number one,” St-Louis was content to say after the match.
For their part, his teammates did not hesitate to show their admiration for him after his save on Alexis Lafrenière, the third and last Rangers player to rush towards him during the shootout.
“Monty stood before them [les Rangers]. He made some spectacular saves. He was very excited by his performance, said Brendan Gallagher, scorer of his first goal in 25 games, once back in the locker room. Besides, I hope he is proud of himself, because he is playing fantastically.”
From diamond to trapeze
On another note, the numerical inferiority unit, which has experienced its share of failures since the start of the season, was perfect on three occasions against the second most productive massive attack on the Bettman circuit.
We could see that the team’s strategists had made a slight, but important, change in the way they defended the enclave. Each time the Rangers moved the puck a little deeper, the Canadiens player on the opposite side moved a little closer to Samuel Montembeault, so as to cover his blind side and make the cross-ice pass more difficult.
From the diamond, we moved on to the trapeze. It’s less glamorous, but it works.