The Montreal Canadiens have yet to win three games in a row this season.
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They failed to do the deed once again, losing 4-2 to the Washington Capitals on Saturday night at the Bell Centre.
No Ovi? No problem. Alexander Ovechkin is still out with a leg injury, but Tom Wilson took a puck to his jaw from teammate Jakob Chychrun and still managed to score twice looking like Popeye.
Patrik Laine went scoreless in his first loss as a Hab. Alex Newhook and Cole Caufield were the goal-scorers for Montreal. Lane Hutson extended his point streak to six games.
Nick Suzuki also has a six-game point streak. The captain played his 400th career game last night.
Everything went right for the Canadiens in the first period. Newhook ended a five-game goalless drought with his sixth of the season to get the ball rolling.
That was followed by Caufield scoring his 17th, but it’s possible the puck might’ve hit Newhook on the way in. Either way, the Habs jumped to a 2-0 lead.
The Caps halved the lead only 33 seconds into the second period. Pierre-Luc Dubois scored his fourth of the campaign with a blast from the point.
The Capitals came into the contest riding an eight-game road winning streak and a +16 goal differential in the third period, so it was clear the Habs were going to be tested. The young club did not pass the audition. Washington completed their 11th comeback victory of the season with a three-goal period.
Wilson, who was still icing his cheek on the bench between shifts, tied up the game 2-2 with 12:50 left on the clock.
Just over 4:30 later, Wilson gave the Caps their first lead of the night. He took advantage of a Montreal turnover in their own zone.
Montreal entered the game having killed off 11 straight power plays, and were 23-for-23 on the PK at home in their last eight home games. Dylan Strome ended that streak to put the Capitals up 4-2.
The Canadiens had their chances in the third period: Jayden Struble, Josh Anderson and Suzuki all missed on breakaways against Logan Thompson, while Brendan Gallagher couldn’t beat the goalie point blank from the slot.
Was Thompson motivated by getting snubbed by Team Canada in favour of the guy across the ice from him, Sam Montembeault? The Caps goalie stopped 22 of 24 shots in the win.
Despite the three breakaways in the final frame, Natural Stat Trick had the Habs at only seven high-danger chances on the night, compared with 16 for the Capitals.
Prior to the third-period meltdown, the Liveblog commenters felt the offensive lines had finally achieved some semblance of balance with Laine’s arrival. It was reassuring to see the inconsistent Newhook hit the scoresheet after a few middling games on the top line.
Programming note: There will be no Liveblog on Monday, Dec. 9.
3. “Habs played almost perfect in the 1st and 2nd periods. They were almost unrecognizable, how hard they played, with little to no mistakes. But the 3rd was a different story, fell back into bad habits, with lots of brain cramps. That said, If not for Thompson, Washington probably loses 4-3.” — DW Thompson
2. “Hmmm … Let me channel the quick-to-anger Habs fan … “Its all Laine’s fault. He didn’t score tonight. What a bum … Hugo should never have traded for him.” There. Now you guys can rest. I did it for you.” — Michael Way
1. “The Habs played well … but the breakaways weren’t CAPITALized on … You can allow tolerance for 1 maybe 2 breakaways but 4 means shooting is an issue no matter how good a goalie is and that’s not taking away from the goalie.” — Rick Woods {“_id”:””,”type”:”raw_html”,”shortcode_tag”:”related_links”,”shortcode”:”[related_links /]”,”content”:”
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