Post-Game Talk: Canadiens run into a brick Woll - Lose 7-3

[Gally11]

He hasn't been good since the year turned to 2025. Only game he played really well was the Dallas game.

He lost against Chicago finishing with a .846 save percentage. We managed to pull out an OT win against Vancouver with him finishing with an even worse .800 save percentage.

He had his 2nd best game of the season against Dallas that we lost in a shootout (best game was 1st game). He had a .972 save percentage.

Utah he was back to below. 900 finishing. 888.

Tonight was a bad game, he finished. 818.

4 of his last 5 starts since the New Year have been well below average starts, but Montreal didn't need him because they were getting quality depth scoring with the 2nd line coming around, Evans & Heineman on the 4th line adding depth scoring.

He's .500, 2-2-1 in those 5 games. Dobes went 4-0-0 against better competition (Monty got the 2 weakest teams in Utah & Chicago).

Yeah Monty is a weird one, even when he was riding hot I’ve never felt super comfortable when there was pressure in our end, especially with traffic. He doesn’t track pucks from the point well, his rebound control is meh, and doesn’t play the puck. Not saying he deserves to be shot out of a cannon or anything lol but it’s type of situation where we need to ride the hot hand until someone grabs #1 assuredly, or until Fowler is ready.

 

[McGuires Corndog]

 

[Archijerej]

Really? For me the second was when we started running on fumes and cheating.

Nah. I may have to watch it again, but to me, we were fine.

It was obvious the Leafs would come out storming. The answer was to play a good "road" period, limiting scoring chances on both sides. The result of such an approach is usually that you either put away the game with another goal, or you limit the enemy's comeback and still enter the 3rd with a significant cushion.

We did just that for 10 minutes, up until McCann's odd man rush. In fact, we had better chances during that span.

We dominated the Leafs with our fore check in the first and then played a passive second. They started gaining momentum coming out of their zone and I sensed that if we gave up one it would be hard to swing the momentum.

Not a jab at you, but I usually find this "take the foot off gas" merely a cliche.

It's impossible to play long stretches with the tempo and aggression we showed in the 1st. You have to manage the game.

Imagine if we did that and got caught on the breaks by the Leafs. The criticism would then be that "sure, we played a great 1st, but you can't expect the opponent to allow this for 40 minutes and attempting it again in the 2nd was naive. The team is still immature etc."

The 3rd was a meltdown, no argument here.

Props to the Leafs for not giving up. They demonstrated the same kind of resilience we did during our road trip. They also got lucky and had a clear advantage in goaltending (although I wouldn't go so far as to blame Montembeault for this one).

 

[Rapala]

Nah. I may have to watch it again, but to me, we were fine.

It was obvious the Leafs would come out storming. The answer was to play a good "road" period, limiting scoring chances on both sides. The result of such an approach is usually that you either put away the game with another goal, or you limit the enemy's comeback and still enter the 3rd with a significant cushion.

We did just that for 10 minutes, up until McCann's odd man rush. In fact, we had better chances during that span.



Not a jab at you, but I usually find this "take the foot off gas" merely a cliche.

It's impossible to play long stretches with the tempo and aggression we showed in the 1st. You have to manage the game.

Imagine if we did that and got caught on the breaks by the Leafs. The criticism would then be that "sure, we played a great 1st, but you can't expect the opponent to allow this for 40 minutes and attempting it again in the 2nd was naive. The team is still immature etc."

The 3rd was a meltdown, no argument here.

Props to the Leafs for not giving up. They demonstrated the same kind of resilience we did during our road trip. They also got lucky and had a clear advantage in goaltending (although I wouldn't go so far as to blame Montembeault for this one).

Well I'd love to see a heat map comparison of our F1 F2 and F3 players on the dump ins for both periods because the sense I got was we were sitting back allowing easy zone exit. As for the cheating we took a number of dumb lazy penalties e.g. Slaf with his useless one handed wave into the Dmans hands.
The refs were just looking for a reason to penalize us and they found one.

 

[That Habs Fan]

I'm wondering if I watched the same game as everyone losing their minds over last night and saying it proves we aren't the team we saw the past few weeks.

We tried to have a shootout against a team with Matthews/Marner/Nylander and their goalie made a half dozen amazing saves to win them the game while ours did not. We did not play a bad game by any means, could have easily won with better luck in either crease.

 

[Andy]

Monty is definitely an above average capable goaltender. He’s been very reliable for two years. He has a stinker yesterday, it happens

 

[Yoor]

True..............tough night all around.
Damn.

Now imagine being a Detroit Lions fans on top of all that! I am still reeling. Ouf.

 

[Forum93]

Just finished watching the game, my God how infuriating was that.
It should have been an easy decision to start Giant Killer Dobes, instead of Monty, who's now 1W, 5L in the last 6 against the Leafs.

 

[Archijerej]

Well I'd love to see a heat map comparison of our F1 F2 and F3 players on the dump ins for both periods because the sense I got was we were sitting back allowing easy zone exit.

It's entirely possible that your impression is correct.

However, that's the thing with aggressive forecheck. If it works as intended, you keep the puck away from your zone, you win it back closer to the opponent's net and can dominate the scoring chances counter.

On the other hand, the higher you press, the more space you're giving up behind you, which the opponent can exploit once he beats your forecheck. Is that really the way to play once 3 up and the opponent had the intermission to recover from initial shock?

It's a risk/reward exercise and I think we still had the advantage in the 2nd. We gave up an odd man rush on McCann's goal, which we shouldn't have, but how many of those did the Leafs give up? We had Anderson's breakaway, Hutson's two on one, Dvorak's post and Caufield's almost goal just off the top of my head.

 

[Forum93]

Discuss

Incorrect, it's spelled D-I-S-G-U-S-T

 

[Rapala]

Monty is definitely an above average capable goaltender. He’s been very reliable for two years. He has a stinker yesterday, it happens

For me Monty is still unproven in the Must Win Games and it's not surprising seeing we haven't been in too many of them. He seemed to do fine in the Worlds but part of the reason we wanted to be in the mix was to see exactly what he can bring to the table. I thought both Columbus and Chicago were must wins and I'm not prepared to give him super high marks in those games as for last night just tear it up.

 

[Frankenheimer]

Meh

 

[OldCraig71]

They could only win without Heinemann for so long.

I was never and will never be a Pezz fan. « Y’en arrache » like they said on tva.

Also,Evans is still getting chances but isn't burying them now and losing the moose adds to it. We need the bottom 6 to contribute and they should sit Pezz and call up a kid from Laval because we need help.

 

[sampollock]

Well new day
Go Habs tonight
Figs embarrassed Habs

 

[MarkovsKnee]

I'm wondering if I watched the same game as everyone losing their minds over last night and saying it proves we aren't the team we saw the past few weeks.

We tried to have a shootout against a team with Matthews/Marner/Nylander and their goalie made a half dozen amazing saves to win them the game while ours did not. We did not play a bad game by any means, could have easily won with better luck in either crease.

We actually had more offensive zone time than they did. We had more high danger shots. We had more shots. We weren't out-played. Their D gave up quality opportunities. We had a lot of chances.

They got a couple of PP goals, a few bounces, and a hot goalie. That was the difference.

The difference was goaltending.

 

[sampollock]

We lost
Nostrils screamed
Fans in the building we short changed

 

[Riddick412]

Crazy seeing the fanbase split over Monty. I thought it was pretty obvious, he sucked again last night. To the next one.

 

[Catanddogguitarrr]

He was good tonight. He & Anderson were going.

Dvorak & Gallagher are getting worse game by game. We have to move Dvorak.

Try to convince Natey. He's a big fan of Dvorak. One of the very few here. I wonder if he have a medical paper to justify his opinion about Dvorak.

 

[Catanddogguitarrr]

true, that sequence was insane and flipped the momentum

We have to move on Dvorak. Not just wait till the tdl, put on him on waivers and bring Beck asap.
I can't stand that slow and unispired 4,5m overpaid player. He had 3/15 FO wins last night. What a disaster, what an embarassment, time to move on and fast !

But Natey disagree with me, lol.

 

[morhilane]

Just finished watching the game, my God how infuriating was that.
It should have been an easy decision to start Giant Killer Dobes, instead of Monty, who's now 1W, 5L in the last 6 against the Leafs.

Monty lost his 3 last games against the Rangers, I think that was a "pick your poison" kind of decision.