Call of the Wilde: Montreal Canadiens dominate but lose to the Nashville Predators

With only one win in the four games, there’s a bit of fear creeping in that the Montreal Canadiens may not be ready for the penthouse yet. The Canadiens have allowed 17 goals in their last three games, which is never winning hockey.

Montreal focused on tightening it up welcoming the Nashville Predators to the Bell Centre. The Canadiens will be fine if they play as well as they did in this one, though the final result was not in their favour falling 5-2.

Wilde Horses 

The Canadiens have not had good goaltending in their first three games with Jakub Dobes managing a negative 4.00 in Goals Saved Above Expected. That’s a far cry from the playoffs last year when Dobes had the best GSAE in the post-season. Dobes is 54th out of 56 goalies in the league in GSAE. His save percentage is .857 in the three games.

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Montreal looked to Jacob Fowler in game four. It was the right call as Fowler was outstanding in Laval to start the season with a save percentage of .946 in his two contests for the Rocket.

Fowler couldn’t be faulted on the goals against. He also made a tremendous save early in the third period, on a Predators power play, that was spectacular. Fowler was forced to go laterally across the entire net to take a one-timer away from Steven Stamkos from 10 feet.

The coaching staff changed the defensive pairings to what was most successful last season. Mike Matheson and Noah Dobson were finally separated. Lane Hutson was with Dobson and they were outstanding finishing with a 74 per cent share in Expected Goals.

Matheson was paired with Alexandre Carrier which was his best pairing last season. With Carrier, they had a 70 Expected Goals share.  The final pairing saw Adam Engstrom get his first action of the season as he lined up with Arber Xhekaj, and they had a strong night at 89 per cent. The changes worked.

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Head Coach Martin St. Louis also changed the lines back to what has worked for a long time as Juraj Slafkovsky returned to the Nick Suzuki line. They were their customary strong selves. Suzuki opened the scoring with his seventh point in four games as he is off to a strong start.

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The real revelation, though, was the second line. In their first game together, Alex Newhook, Chris Kreider, and Josh Anderson were flying. Three north-south players were getting up the ice quickly. Newhook was especially sharp at rushing the puck up the ice with his outstanding speed and winning the zone, then finding outlets.

They had a shift that ended with a Newhook goal that was total domination. It was 90 seconds of excellence where they just swarmed the Predators. Anderson was resembling his best self, and Kreider was a force down low.

Anderson had a breakaway in the third, and he forced a penalty slicing through defenders. It was Anderson’s best game in a long time.

The third line was strong as well. It was worried the step that Phillip Danault lost last year might turn into a second step, but he looks in better shape and faster. Danault is also as intelligent as he ever was against top competition.

Another forward who is has picked it up to another level without question is Zachary Bolduc. He already has three goals on the year, and if he continues to show this higher level of game awareness, and puck skills, he surely will have his best season as a pro.

Wilde Goats 

The Canadiens would love to have the increased physical presence of Florian Xhekaj to work in their favour. The aspect of his game that has to shine is he must be a strong first forward putting fear into defenders 0n the forecheck. He needs to be fast enough, and direct enough in his play to use his big body, or his size becomes irrelevant.

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Apart from an early hit against Carolina, Florian has not been able to make a physical impact. The only way he can stay in the league then is to be a smart enough defensive player to add the intimidation, while not costing the team on the scoreboard.

After a minus-3 against the Hurricanes, Florian had difficulty on the opening Nashville goal. He missed his assignment, then started running around trying to cover for it. The truth is he is not as good as the other eleven forwards, and there is no spot on the team for him yet.

The contest turned in Nashville’s favour on a poor shift for Matheson after a good night. He tried to force a play to the net in the offensive zone that wasn’t there, and then on the turnover, he tripped Stamkos. The Predators scored on the ensuring power play to steal the win.

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One of the unsaid knowns in sports is that the longer it takes to get a diagnosis on a player the worse it is. When it’s a sprain or a contusion, it’s revealed in a hurry. Even a groin injury is told to the media the same day or the next at the latest.

The wait on how Samuel Montembeault is fairing after a non-contact right leg injury in practice at 10:30 am is discouraging at the end of the following day.

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The Head of Media Relations Chantal Machabée indicated that Montembeault went through testing on Wednesday and needed additional attention for a diagnosis on Thursday.

Generally, expect a concerning diagnosis with this as the background. This is why it is not a terrible idea to have three strong goaltenders in the system.

This makes it difficult for General Manager Kent Hughes. Montembeault won the back-up job out of camp, not only because he played well, but also because management wanted to showcase him to improve chances of an effective trade for the 29 year old.

Brian Wilde, a Montreal-based sports writer, brings you Call of the Wilde on globalnews.ca after each Canadiens game.