Big win for our boys against Montreal, certainly didn't need that level of anxiety for a late January game. These are supposed to be the sleepy dog day games.
That was a wild, high-event game and the gang does OT win (finally). I will say Montreal is going to be a problem in short order, the Bell Center looked/sounded electric, they have several dynamic players and the Suzuki-Caufield combo had the Devils in a blender most of the night. The kid in goal, Dobas, looked very good and he made several grade A saves to keep them in it. Jake Allen did the same on our end, and as I have said, he is a very capable veteran and if he can avoid his occasional stinker we should be in good hands until Markstrom's return.
But that is now the 2nd pyrrhic win in a row, with Nico going down. He'll be day-to-day, but him getting hurt really showed our brutal center depth - we rely on him for so so so much: goals, faceoffs, PK, PP. Aside from the stats you know, he leads or is at the top in:
1st in the league in FOs won with 677
2.5x the next closest Devil in FOs taken
More FOs taken than the rest of the primary centers combined
2nd to Jack in TOI at 20:21/G
2nd to Jack in PP TOI with 3:06/G
1st among Devils forwards with 2:04 of PK/G
He gets credit for a lot but it is STILL not enough for what he does, and his injury was born from how hard he works and how much abuse he takes. The HNIC feed showed (what I think) was a totally unrelated cross check he took, meanwhile his injury was likely from an entirely DIFFERENT cross check. I know it will never get taken out fo the game or called tighter, but the little rabbit-punch kidney cross checks are dirty as fuck. Our exposure on FOs was laid bare last night, as Dowling was called on for critical D-Zone draws, and Luke had to take an OT draw (which we can now say was objectively hilarious).
The 1st period was a tale in two parts: Montreal had a 6-4 chance differential through 10 min, but the tide certainly turned as we were 6-1 in the second 10 min (10-7 us for the period). Bratt came out flying: on the first of the game, he did some exceptional board work to maintain possession, peeled to the middle and put two Habs in his back pocket as he darted down the middle, dished off to Nico who showed nice little hands for a 1-0 us tuck. His second was more of the same elite skating and puck protection as he circled the net, muscled off Guhlie and ripped a backhand low through Dobas. Work on your backhand kiddos, it can be an incredible tool in your toolbox, goalies hate them and they can be very deceptive. Heading into intermission up 2-0? What is this?
Yep, that didn't last long as Jack and Cotter fumbled fucked the puck on a clearing attempt, Caufiled got it back along the boards and fed Suzuki for a one-timer righ in the kitchen. Nothing Jake could do, not good. As I mentioned above, those two have developed into an elite combo. Jack had a pretty rough game until his winner, multiple turnovers (including this one) and was on the ice for all 3 goals against. I know he's got some stitches in his finger (didn't take a single draw, see above re: Nico) but the biggest problem is we are now on year 3 of trying to find a winger for him not named Jesper Bratt. Bastian looked like he was playing a different game, Cotter takes a lifetime to get his shot off and has the hockey sense of a potato. Palat is fine on one side, but is more or less a "Don't fuck it up" guy. With the 4th line emerging from their slumber and being much better of late, a wing for Jack could move up the priority line at the deadline. I put together some options here:
https://theunclepuckers.com/blog/trade-targets
Shoutout Tuna - He had a fantastic, hard working game - the whole line did - and it would be pretty good timing if they continued their recent stretch of play. Tuna was 2nd on the team in xGF, 1st in xGF% @ a whopping 93.5%, and 5th in Corsi @ 64%. He has always been a bit of an analytic darling, but is famously a ghost in the playoffs. I'm torn with suggesting giving him a look with Jack and keeping the 4th line as is. His goal to add some breathing room was a lunch pail workman insert blue collar adjective here type of goal. He won like 4 battles before Lazar fed Dougie, then won two more to bury a crease dive goal. Love it, that's 2 goals in his last 3 and 3 points in his last 4.
Montreal is dangerous though, a bit reminiscent of the 22-23 Devils in transition and we gave one right back. This is where I tinhkkkk Nico got hurt, as Suzuki dumped him with a dirty cross check, and led a rush the other way as Nico got tangled up with Jonas. Drop pass to Caufield, who dog-walked Bratt and had a clean shot from the slot - a sniper like him is going to bury that 95% of the time, not much Allen can do. A lot went wrong on this, probably could've been a penalty, and Bratt overcommitted on Caufield, Suzuki had already backed the D into the zone so they were flat footed trying to push up.
The 2nd period was a pretty bad period - out-everything'd and we were hanging on for dear life at the end there with Allen coming up large. But a 3-2 lead going into the 3rd, and we are good at holding on for leads. Right?
Wrong, the Nico injury reared its head as they tied it up at 3:34 off a clean FO win with..Palat? Ondrej, the overpaid Czech guy? Clean win --> D to D --> Clean shot through traffic by Carrier. That is one of those simple plays you draw up and when it works it's hard to defend. But it started in the dot. The Devils do this too, you'll see in the O-Zone the D will switch sides to open up a one-timer on that D-to-D pass. It is just so rare that a real life actual center gets cooked that badly in the dot these days. 3-3 hold onto your butts.
I was STRESSED, but the Devils didn't fold. Hey, I like this thing where they don't fold.. Chances galore on both ends, Timo got robbed twice, Noesen got robbed point blank, Allen was swallowing pucks. It would've been more fun if this wasn't such a crucial game.
After having virtually no OT games early, it seems like we go to OT every goddamn game. Did they practice this time? It felt like they were much more structured, kept guys wide and didn't give up anything odd-man the other way. Not gonna lie I was filled with dread every time Jack touched the puck, with how he was playing this game and his recent stretch of OT brain farts. But they stayed patient, and our handsome bull Timo bullied the shit out of Matheson with fantastic body position, laid it up to Jack who made no mistake finishing this one off. THANK FUCKING GOD.
Lane Hutson has really grown his game, his head fakes/60 are still super impressive, and his skating and puck handling are electric. If he figures out how to have a modicum of defense in his game, he will be a good one. But you know who's better by a country mile? Luke Hughes. He had an incredible game, particularly defensively. You just... can't get by him, around him, through him. He had a bit of a lull during the past few games with some mental mistakes, but he was the only one who kept their elite players in check, including attempted murder on Hutson. He also had some incredible O-zone possession - Montreal just had no response for him. He is even 3rd on the team in OT draws taken this season now (let's never do that again).
We are now 23-0-2 when leading after 2 periods - pretty pretty pretty good. First time winning consecutive games in a month. The funnest fact of them all: we are now the first team in NHL history to beat Montreal at home 9 straight times. NHL HISTORY! Dat's crazy.
We won all the counting stats and fancy stats battles even though it was generally a pretty even game.
44-32 shots
57.6% Corsi
19-16 HD Chances
56.5% xGF
57% FF
Last quick note: our Russian stud goalie of the future, Yegorov, had a great outing last night, making his first start for BU. Pando threw him into the fire, away, against the #1 team in the NCAA, BC (Hagens, Perrault, Leonard, Fowler). Aside from a bizarro call and early PP goal against, he locked it down giving up nothing the rest of the way to 23 saves on 24 shots, and I saw 3-4 HD chances where he made incredible stops. Between him and Malek, we have some good keepers on the rise.
Need to keep the gas pedal down and stack some more wins, CBJ, NYR are creeping and playing well. Shut up Steve, nobody asked.
