On Sunday, for the first time since 1967, two goaltenders made their NHL debut in the same game.
One, Matthew O’Connor of the Ottawa Senators, was suiting up in place of the injured Andrew Hammond. The other, Michael Condon, has come up to permanently seize the Montreal Canadiens backup role.
Condon stopped 20 of 21 shots Sunday in a 3-1 win over the Senators, to notch the first victory of his career, shining most with the game on the line in the dying moments of the third period.
It was O’Connor who was under pressure for most the night, and he performed admirably in turning aside 31 of 34 shots.
The Canadiens got two-first period goals from Tomas Plekanec, one of them from an awkward angle, the other on a breakaway from his own blueline. The frame ended with Montreal having not missed the net with a single shot, testing O’Connor 15 times.
By the end of the second period, Montreal was outshooting Ottawa by a two-to-one margin (24-12).
As hapless as the Canadiens power play appeared in the game, O’Connor didn’t help their cause by shutting down seven of their opportunities.
At the other end, Condon calmly and coolly negated second-chance opportunities by preventing rebounds and displaying strong puck-movement. He showed poise in turning aside shots after long stretches without seeing any. He never appeared nervous.
Meanwhile Sunday, Carey Price’s backup from last season, Dustin Tokarski, allowed six goals in a blowout loss for the AHL St. John’s IceCaps.
The win kept Montreal undefeated (3-0). They’ll try to make it four in a row when they visit Pittsburgh Tuesday to wrap up what will be the second-longest road trip they make this season.
But before we get there, here are five takaways from this one.
Canadiens fourth line dominated
As innocuous as it might seem, there was only a fraction of luck involved in this play from Torrey Mitchell to give the Canadiens a two-goal lead in the third period.
It took great creativity, and a smidgen of good fortune, for it to squirt through a mess of bodies. But that doesn’t detract from how skilled of a play it was.
Mitchell and his linemates, Brian Flynn and Devante Smith-Pelly, were focused all night. They were also heavily involved, combining for nine of Montreal’s 34 shots in the game.
Flynn led with six, while Smith-Pelly had one and Mitchell two. All three players hovered around 70 per cent in corsi for at even strength, which means they played almost three-quarters of the game in the offensive zone.
You aren’t going to lose too many games when your fourth line dominates.
Pageau, Pageau Pageau Pageau, Pageau, Pageau…
It’s one of the best chants in hockey.
Have a listen:
Jean-Gabriel Pageau has 19 NHL goals (regular and post-season combined), and five of them have been scored against the Canadiens. It seems like more because he’s torched them in the pre-season as well.
He hadn’t scored in seven straight games against Montreal, including last year’s first-round series in the Stanley Cup playoffs, but it was predictable he would get one in Sunday’s game. You could feel it coming minutes before it happened, as a couple of geniuses predicted it would.
And it’s not just that Pageau scores, it’s how he scores that makes him so widely adored by Senators fans.
Check out the second effort on this one.
He’s a fourth-round draft pick, who’s generously listed at 5-foot-10, 180 pounds, and he never gives up.
Different coach, same old Habs power play
Perhaps Jean-Jacques Daigneault deserves the benefit of the doubt. The Canadiens assistant coach took over power play duties from Dan Lacroix, who ran the 15th-worst power play among the 16 clubs in last year’s playoffs.
The Canadiens power play wasn’t much better last year during the regular season, ranking 23rd at 16.5 per cent efficiency. Many predicted it couldn’t possibly be worse this season with sniper Alex Semin joining the team, with possession-magnet Lars Eller gaining an increased role, with Alex Galchenyuk moving to centre, and with defenceman Nathan Beaulieu ready for more offensive responsibility.
But through three games of the 2015-16 season, the Canadiens are just 1-for-14 with the man advantage.
Pageau’s goal Sunday came with the Senators short-handed, allowing Montreal’s opposition to be as successful on their power play as they have been thus far.
Canadiens coach Michel Therrien likes to say that generating momentum is the most important part of the power play.
He’s wrong.
Scoring is more important, and if the Canadiens don’t start doing it soon, this will become the dominant narrative around the team. Worse, it will cost them confidence and points in the standings.
“Because of our schedule, we haven’t been able to practice our power play enough over the last five days,” said Therrien in French after the game. “When you’re struggling, you need a lot of repetition, and right now we don’t have time for that.”
Touché… but still…
Silent night for Hoffman-Turris-Stone
Ottawa’s top line combined for 11 points in the first two games of the season, but it hit a wall against the Canadiens.
Mark Stone, Kyle Turris and Mike Hoffman were a combined minus-6 in the game, and they served eight minutes in penalties between them. They also took a significant beating in the matchup against Montreal’s fourth line.
There won’t be many scoreless nights for these three. They have excellent chemistry and all three of them can put the puck in the net, but nothing’s automatic in this league.
Ottawa’s power play cooled off
It was a calamity for the Senators power play last season, too. Despite all that firepower that took them from 14 points out of a playoff spot in early February to clinching a berth in April, they barely edged out Montreal with a 16.8 per cent efficiency rating, good for 22nd in the league.
They came into the game having scored three power play goals on their first six opportunities this season, but they couldn’t muster anything against Montreal in four attempts Sunday.
That’s hardly a reason for the Senators to panic, but if they hope to avoid slumping, it’s a warning sign they better heed.
