To my French Canadian ancestors, this is your shot to absolutely rip into a Blackhawks fan. You’ll see these every now and again. I’m not a Canadiens fan, although I follow the team. For what it’s worth, if Quebec City had a team, I would absolutely follow them instead. But beggars can’t be choosers. The Colorado Avalanche reminded us of that last week.
Patrik Laine
News from the weekend includes Patrik Laine missing roughly 3-4 months due to a sports hernia (according to the French version of the press release). Considering Laine missed significant time last season, this is a bummer. Laine is set to be a free agent at the end of the season.
Laine last played on Oct. 16 against the Nashville Predators (a 3-2 victory for the Canadiens). Through his five games, Laine had a 35.93% Corsi at 5-on-5 and a 38.78% expected goals share (xG%).
Montreal 4 - Canucks 3
I was a little surprised to see the Habs have a slow start in the first period. They had a 33.33% Corsi at 5-on-5, and most players looked out of sorts. Passes were missed, and turnovers were created. Elias Pettersson (the good one) ripped home a cross-ice feed from Filip Hronek to put the Canucks up 1-0. Considering the way the Oilers’ game went, I expected the Canadiens to come out pissed off and looking for a win. The Canadiens only had four shots to the Canucks’ 11 in all situations.
But the second period saw a revived Canadiens team despite Vancouver gaining a 2-0 lead after a power play goal. The Canadiens had a prolonged shift in the offensive zone before Joe Veleno took a penalty, giving the Canucks a 2-0 lead. Ivan Demidov made an impressive pass to Nick Suzuki, who scored on the power play, and the Canadiens continued to push hard. They finished the second period with a 63.16% Corsi and a 65.49 xG% at 5-on-5.
Ivan Demidov got another assist with a pass to Juraj Slafkovsky and scored the final Habs goal to make it a 4-2 game. It’s nights like this where I look at Artyom Levshunov and really hate the draft pick the Blackhawks made. Demidov finished the game with a 58.36 xG% at 5-on-5, four shot attempts, one goal, and three points. He could be on Connor Bedard’s line. Just saying.
Evander Kane made a dirty cross-check on Cole Caufield and had the audacity to complain about the call. Caufield, by the way, has had an impressive start to the season. Seven goals and 10 points through nine games is nice.
The Habs had a slow start in this one, but fought back to score four unanswered goals. This is where I’d like the Hawks to be very soon, but I do believe the way the Habs play is maybe two steps ahead of the Blackhawks.
The Canadiens still hold the top of the Atlantic Division with a record of 7-3-0. With a PDO of 1.026, the Habs are expected to face some regression. Their shooting percentage of 11.56% is the third best in the league, but their team save percentage of .910 places them 14th overall.