The Seattle Kraken did their damage on just 23 shots. Starter Sam Montembeault was pulled after allowing five goals on 10 shots.
The Kraken scored eight goals on just 23 shots. Starter Sam Montembeault was pulled after allowing five goals on 10 shots. Cayden Primeau fared only slightly better in relief, stopping just 10 of 13 shots.
Brandon Montour led the way on offence for the Kraken. The defenceman nearly doubled his season-long point total with three goals and an assist.
Juraj Slafkovsky returned to the lineup after missing three games with an upper-body injury.
The Canadiens were out of it right from the jump. Jamie Oleksiak opened scoring 25 seconds in, followed by Ryker Evans at 3:49. Both goals came from point shots with traffic in front of Montembeault.
Seattle got more goals from their defence last night (5) than the Habs have gotten from their defence all season (3), but the Canadiens defence did try to kickstart the offence. Arber Xhekaj and Lane Hutson each had strong chances to break Montreal’s goose egg.
Xhekaj also coughed up the puck, leading to Seattle’s fourth goal in the first 10:33 of the opening period.
Down 4-0, Montreal finally got on the board when Cole Caufield scored his ninth of the campaign.
If the Caufield goal and a somewhat promising power play gave the Habs a flicker of hope entering the dressing room after Period 1, it was extinguished at 1:32 of the second when Montour scored on the power play to give the Kraken a commanding 5-1 lead.
The goal ended Montembeault’s night. He had to battle with deflections all night, but five goals on 10 shots is five goals on 10 shots, no matter how you slice it.
Montour added another at 8:44 to put the game out of reach. It was 6-1 Kraken after 40 minutes.
In the third period, Montour completed his first career hat trick. He signed a long-term deal in Seattle after winning a Cup in Florida last season.
Eeli Tolvanen made it 8-1, and with most of the Bell Centre faithful hitting the exits, Josh Anderson scored his second of the season. He has four points in his last five games.
The Canadiens outshot the Kraken and Moneypuck’s “Deserve to Win O’Meter” is a little closer than the score would suggest at 53.8% for Seattle, but there’s no way to positively spin eight goals on 23 shots, or giving up two goals on the first two shots. Montreal had their backs against the wall from the opening minute and they never even got close to digging out of their early hole.
Slafkovsky’s experiment on the Alex Newhook and Joel Armia lasted mere minutes. He was back on the top line before too long. He laid a big hit on Josh Mahura in the waning minutes of the third, but it was too little, too late to rally the troops. Brendan Gallagher and Anderson continue to show life as role players.
The Habs have allowed 41 goals in 10 games. That includes allowing seven to New York and eight to Seattle in the past week, and two other games where they allowed six. The liveblog commenters have wondered aloud since Day 1 if Montembeault and Primeau are enough between the pipes to vault the Habs into the playoff mix. Last night did not alleviate their concerns.
3. “I don’t know man. I’m rewatching the game. Doesn’t look like Monty had much of a chance on the first four goals. A few deflections.” — Marc Taillefer
2. “As I’ve said earlier, you can’t win with .500 goaltending, as a matter of fact most times you get blown out when that happens. Not much of a game. Write this one off, get some sleep and come out strong on Thursday.” — Doug Kirkby
1. “Well, on the bright side: 1) Shane Wright didn’t get a point, look up to the GM’s box, and stare, and 2) We seem to have fixed our problem of losing too many one-goal games.” — Michael Way