Canadiens’ counterpunch in Game 1 loss puts Capitals on notice
The Capitals punched first and punched hard to win Game 1. But the Canadiens punching back showed they’re in this series.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — It took less than half a second for the puck to bounce on Kaiden Guhle, and even less time for him to brace for the hit Tom Wilson nailed him with just over three minutes into his first-ever Stanley Cup Playoff game.
The 23-year-old had spent most of his life watching these games on television but, like the rest of his inexperienced Montreal Canadiens teammates, instantly learned on Monday that television doesn’t do these types of games justice.
“If I could play the game from the TV, I’d probably be McDavid,” the Edmonton native said. “It’s definitely a lot faster when you’re actually out on the ice.”
We’d say finally getting to feel it was the biggest win of the night for Guhle and six other Canadiens who’d never felt it before. However, they also stood up to the playoff atmosphere before Alex Ovechkin scored the first overtime winner of his Stanley Cup Playoff career to give his Washington Capitals a 1-0 lead in this series.
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With the Canadiens overwhelmed by the moment, Ovechkin, who came into the game leading all active NHLers in playoff goals (72), opened the scoring in the 19th minute.
But by the time the 39-year-old potted the winner, he and the Capitals hadn’t exactly dispirited the Canadiens.
“One thing I’ve learned about their coach, their team: This team will not go quietly into the night,” said Capitals coach Spencer Carbery after it was done, and he was right.
The Canadiens were the same Canadiens we saw in the regular season — a team that got rocked back to its heels but found its way onto its toes, a team that refused to wilt under adversity. They had come back to win eight games they trailed through two periods, and they gave themselves a chance to do that again in this first playoff game.
It was important Cole Caufield scored on the power play before Nick Suzuki tied the game with 4:15 remaining in regulation, and it was just as relevant that the Canadiens pushed back to take a 35-30 edge in shots and go from hunted to hunter through the first 60 minutes.
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For the Capitals, the goal going into Game 1 was to win. But it was also to begin dispiriting the Canadiens, who had been galvanized in the process of making the playoffs.
They came into the night the heavy favourite after falling just four points shy of authoring the best regular season of any team in the NHL to capture the Presidents’ Trophy, and imposing their will would prove just as important as the result.
“It’s our job to play that role early in the series,” said Carbery earlier in the day. “We gained home ice by the way that we played during the regular season. We earned it. Now it’s on us to take advantage and chip away at belief in a group that has a lot of momentum, has a ton of positive energy and feels really, really good about themselves going into the playoffs.”
Job 1 was completed by the Capitals.
But winning by the skin of their teeth barely put a dent in Job 2, and they knew it.
“If we think for a second, ‘Yeah, you’ve chipped away, you’ve laid a foundation, you’ve won one game…’ I have no doubt that they (the Canadiens) probably walk out, and they probably have a team meeting tomorrow, and they probably have confidence coming out of Game 1 in our building,” Carbery said.
Confirmed.
“It’s a very good first game for our group,” said Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis. “We’d have liked to have won, but it’s a very good game.”
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It didn’t appear it was going to be one after those first 20 minutes were in the books, with Guhle comparing that period to the first period he’d ever played in the league and calling it the fastest hockey he’s ever participated in.
“You don’t really know what to expect, you don’t really know the speed of the game and how things are going to go,” Guhle said. “It kind of felt similar to that (first NHL game), and once you kind of get a couple of touches, feel the speed of the game, then you know…”
You start to play.
“I felt that we caught up to it and we started executing more,” said St. Louis. “We spent more time in the O-zone and we got better as the game went on. I feel like in terms of what we tried to do out there tonight, I felt it was a pretty good first game. There was a lot of good stuff. Unfortunately, you don’t win, but we got some really good stuff from this game.”
Start with Samuel Montembeault, who didn’t remotely appear as though the first playoff moment of his career was too big for him.
“I did my usual gameday routine,” the goaltender said, “and when it started, I felt ready.”
Stopping the first 12 shots he faced before Ovechkin snapped one that nicked David Savard and beat him on the blocker side showed it.
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Montembeault made one more save in the first period before making 18 others on the night. Ovechkin scored the winner from two feet in front of him, and he couldn’t be faulted for that.
Well before it happened, the rest of the Canadiens woke up and made this a 50-50 proposition.
Lane Hutson worked through early jitters and found his footing in the second before notching assists on both Canadiens goals to become the first rookie defenceman for the franchise to have a multipoint performance since P.K. Subban had a three-point game against the Philadelphia Flyers in 2010.
Juraj Slafkovsky looked like a deer in the headlights through most of the first two periods but started to assert himself in the third and was instrumental in creating the chaos that led to Suzuki’s tying goal.
The captain showed the poise of a player who’d been here before when he settled that puck and waited for his opening to fire it into the net.
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Suzuki and the Canadiens had their chances to win the game after that, too, confirming what St. Louis had said about them earlier in the day — that they hadn’t arrived in the playoffs “to just pick up a participation ribbon.”
In the process, they served notice to the Capitals.
“I think they knew already,” Suzuki said. “They know we’re a good team. I mean, they’re a good team. Game is really tight both ways, trading chances and defending hard, so I expect a lot more of that in the series.”
You expect Guhle, Slafkovsky, Hutson, and other first-timers Ivan Demidov, Emil Heineman and Jayden Struble—if he isn’t swapped for Arber Xhekaj—to feel that much more comfortable in Game 2.
Carbery expects that from the Canadiens as a whole after what he saw in Game 1.
“We know we have our hands full, and we’re going to see a better first period from them in Game 2,” he said. “I guarantee it. And that’s on us to counter that and know that that’s coming and not drop our guard.”
The Capitals punched first and punched hard.
But the Canadiens punching back showed they’re in this series.
