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In Hainsight: The Maple Leafs Are Victorious at the Bell Centre |
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Follow me @KarineHains for all updates about the Montreal Canadiens and women's hockey
Montreal had won the last five times the Maple Leafs had come to visit, but yesterday, the Maple Leafs ended that streak. The Canadiens put up a good fight though, they had 31 shots on Samsonov’s net, but the goaltender was in good form and could only be beaten twice. Meanwhile, the Leafs managed to score three goals against Samuel Montembeault, the last one coming a little over halfway into the third period when John Tavares made the most of a lucky bounce. The Habs can be proud of their compete level and their display bodes well for the future.
The Canadiens’ first line did a wonderful job of neutralizing Toronto’s one. Nick Suzuki didn’t get on the scoresheet, but he was one of the key reasons why Bertuzzi, Matthews, and Nylander did not either. The Habs’ captain won 70% of his face-off, a sure way to give his team a leg up when it came to puck possession. Slafkovsky had his best game in a while, grabbing two assists, shooting three times on net, and landing five hits in over 21 minutes of ice time. A performance that earned him the second star of the game. There’s no denying that the young Slovak has improved by leads and bounds the season.
As for Cole Caufield, he didn’t score but he once again displayed how good of a playmaker he is becoming. On the first goal in the game, he was the one to spot Matheson joining the rush and being in lots of space on the other side of the Leafs’ zone. He sent a perfect pass to Matheson who buried it to give Montreal the lead 38 seconds in. While he may not be scoring as many goals as the fans would like, learning to be a good playmaker makes him an even bigger threat on the ice as teams will now have to be wary of both his passes and his shots.
On the blue line, Arber Xhekaj continued to make good use of his newfound wicked shot, testing Samsonov seven times himself for 23% of the Canadiens’ shots. His game was also very physical, landing 4 hits, and he did the right thing by not dropping the gloves with Reaves again. The Canadiens had the momentum for most of the game and he was smart enough to recognize that. Defensively he wasn’t perfect though, a few Leafs forwards beat him with their speed to get in real close to Montembeault’s net.
Mike Matheson also had quite the game, scoring the first marker, and getting an assist on second goal scored by Newhook on the power play. As always, the defenseman was a minutes’ muncher spending over 28 minutes on the ice. My one concern about him though has to be his reluctance to feed Slafkovsky on the power play, this feels like Petry with Caufield all over again and it will have to be addressed with him in short order.
The Canadiens will now be back in action on Tuesday night when they’ll host the Columbus Blue Jackets on the last bobblehead night of the season. The first 8,000 fans to enter the Bell Centre will receive a Kirby Dach bobblehead.
Montreal Canadiens Blogger • 
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