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Canadiens vs. Flyers Game 4 recap: Habs fall into the trap once more – Habs Eyes on the Prize

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After a frustrating night skating into the cheval de frise the Philadelphia Flyers placed in the neutral zone on Sunday, the Montreal Canadiens needed to approach the offence differently in Game 4. Simply trying to beat that neutral-zone trap one-on-one (or, more accurately, one-on-four) wasn’t working, and there needed to be a new strategy to get past the defences.

From the opening faceoff, it was clear that this was going to be another measured game from both teams. Initial passes were tentative, zone entry attempts probing to see if the defence was just as tough as it had been last game, and no player wanted to give up any ice and be responsible for the all-important opening goal.

The Flyers were the team getting the first shots on goal. Few of them were particularly dangerous, but they clearly had the upper hand in the early going, and the Canadiens weren’t showing the intensity they needed to get out to an early lead ot prevent Philadelphia from settling into its defensive formation.

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It wasn’t long before that slight advantage in play turned into a major one for Philadelphia. Promoted to Claude Giroux’s spot on the top line ahead of the game, Michael Raffl was given too much ice to work with when a Montreal transition was halted at the blue line. He had plenty of room to load up with no interfence, and a perfect shot entered the far top corner.

Montreal’s best player in the series, Jesperi Kotkaniemi, tried to get the goal back with an individual effort. Getting around three players proved to be too much — as it has on the majority of the Canadiens’ attempted rushes — and the centre got called for a trip when he tried win the puck back after having his momentum stopped.

The combination of Montreal’s strong penalty kill and a non-creative Flyers power play allowed Kotkaniemi to serve his sentence in its entirety, and Montreal tried to get back in the game. In the first period that often meant having one defenceman cheat toward the offensive zone trying to keep the puck on the offensive half of the ice, and they gave up a few odd-man rushes as a result. Either good defensive plays or poor passing from the Flyers thwarted those chances, and Montreal quickly learned that that strategy wasn’t going to work.

The best chance Montreal had came when Nick Suzuki made a great read to jump past a Flyers forward and intercept the back-pass he attempted to his defenceman. Suzuki turned and found a wide-open Max Domi in about the same spot with the same amount of space as Raffl had used to open the scoring, but Domi was unable to accept the pass, and the play resulted in nothing. The Canadiens went into the intermission down a goal, with the Flyers already established in their neutral-zone trap prepared to simply play out the final 40 minutes.

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And play them out they did. The neutral zone proved nearly impossible to navigate, forcing the Habs to the walls, which is precisely what the Flyers were hoping for. The cycle was ineffective for Montreal as the opponent simply pinned players on the boards and took their passing options away. And that was only on the rare occasions the Habs penetrated the blue line in the first place.

Seeing his club unable to generate any offence for four periods, Kirk Muller abandoned the whole concept of forward lines and just sent out various permutations of three forwards. The interim head coach certainly liked what he was seeing from a fourth line consisting of Alex Belzile, Jake Evans, and Joel Armia, and tried to kickstart other players by adding their jump to different lines.

Montreal’s best looks came when a defenceman simply bypassed all the closely checked forwards and carried the puck into the zone himself. Jeff Petry was the best at accomplishing that in Game 4, especially on the first of two power-play opportunities the Canadiens were presented with midway through the second.

As they were still finding a way to create a goal of their own, they saw the lead get extended to two. Philippe Myers got the puck near the wall in the Canadiens zone, and flipped a shot to the net that Price prepared to turn aside into the corner, Unfortunately for the Habs, the shot fluttered off the stick of Brett Kulak, causing it to bounce on its way to the net. Instead of hitting Price’s stick blade and getting swept away, it jumped up above his pad, deflected off the shaft of his stick just under his blocker, and into the net.

Despite turning up the blender to purée, no forward trio had the ability to penetrate the offensive zone on its own in the third. Kotkaniemi and Suzuki took to the ice together on a few shifts, placing the two most creative players on the team together, but also combining two lines into one. Part of the fallout from that move was getting two of their original wingers benched: Jonathan Drouin and, surprisingly, Brendan Gallagher.

Gallagher was displeased with the move, as his comments made clear in his availabiltiy at the conclusion of the 2-0 loss — a second consecutive shutout performance. The player who leads the Habs in shots and scoring chances this series was largely unable to help his team cut into the deficit in the third period until a long presence right at the end. He and Drouin finished with the lowest ice time of any players who started the game in the top nine, at 13:07.

The question will be how both respond to those lengthy stints on the sidelines in Wedneday’s Game 5 — or even if they can have the response Muller is obviously hoping for. Through four games, we’ve learned that leaving things up to the forwards isn’t the answer, and the defencemen are critical to the offensive game. But there is still more effort that Drouin can give, more jam that Gallagher can provide, and more focus that the forwards can show to make sure the few breaks they do create result in scoring opportunities. There are improvements left to be made, and they will have to be made if the Canadiens hope to win Wednesday’s game to stay in the series.

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Canucks place goalie Thatcher Demko on long-term injured list – CBC.ca

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The Vancouver Canucks have placed all-star goalie Thatcher Demko on the long-term injured reserve list retroactively.

“It’s just cap related,” coach Rick Tocchet said after practice Wednesday. “We get some cap relief, that’s all it is.” 

The 28-year-old netminder has been considered week to week since being sidelined with a lower-body injury midway through Vancouver’s 5-0 win over the Winnipeg Jets on March 9.

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That injury designation hasn’t changed, Tocchet said.

Demko boasts a 34-18-2 record this season, with a .917 save percentage, a 2.47 goals-against average and five shutouts.

Casey DeSmith has taken over the starting job for Vancouver, going 3-2-1 since Demko’s injury. He has a .899 save percentage on the season with a 2.73 goals-against average and one shutout. 

The earliest Demko could be back in the Canucks’ lineup is April 6 against the Kings in Los Angeles.

He’s expected to be a key piece as Vancouver (45-19-8) prepares for its first playoff appearance since the COVID-shortened 2019-20 campaign. 

Canucks general manager Patrik Allvin also announced Wednesday that the club has called up forward Arshdeep Bains from the Abbotsford Canucks of the American Hockey League. 

“I’d like to see where [Bains is] at,” Tocchet said, noting he isn’t sure whether the 23-year-old winger will slot into the lineup when the Canucks host the Dallas Stars on Thursday. 

WATCH | Bains makes NHL debut

Surrey, B.C.’s Arshdeep Bains makes Canucks debut

1 month ago

Duration 2:20

Arshdeep Bains from Surrey, B.C., has made his NHL debut with the Vancouver Canucks Tuesday night against the Colorado Avalanche. As CBC’s Joel Ballard reports, it’s been a hard-fought journey for the hometown kid to the big leagues.

Bains played five games for the NHL team in February before being sent back to Abbotsford. 

“He went down, he’s done a couple of things that we like, and he’s got some speed,” Tocchet said. 

Vancouver may get another forward back in the lineup Thursday. 

Dakota Joshua practised in a full-contact jersey on Wednesday for the first time since suffering an upper-body injury in Vancouver’s 4-2 win over the Blackhawks in Chicago on Feb. 13. 

The physical winger, who’s set to become an unrestricted free agent this summer, has a career-high 26 points (13 goals, 13 assists) this season.

Sitting out injured “hasn’t been fun,” Joshua said.

“It feels like forever,” he said. “But at this point, that’s behind me and I’m moving forward.”

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Senators score 5 in 1st, cruise past Sabres – NHL.com

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“I thought that we were ready to go,” Ottawa coach Jacques Martin said. “We got some pucks at the net, we got people at the net. Took advantage of our opportunities and, I think, built a nice lead. And then I thought, in the third period, we continued again. Our goaltending was good. Made some key saves. But I thought we shut them down in the third period good.”

Shane Pinto had a goal and three assists, and Brady Tkachuk, Boris Katchouk, Jakob Chychrun and Drake Batherson each had a goal and an assist for the Senators (31-36-4), who have won three in a row. Korpisalo made 34 saves.

“If you want to win, you need balance,” Pinto said. “And we had that tonight and it’s going to be big for the back-to-back tomorrow (against the Chicago Blackhawks) to have that same thing. So, going to need all the guys on board.”

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JJ Peterka and Connor Clifton scored for the Sabres (34-34-5), who have lost four of six. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen allowed four goals on nine shots before he was replaced by Devon Levi, who made 31 saves in relief.

“We wanted, I guess, to play as individuals,” Clifton said. “I’m disappointed we let ‘Upie’ down, he’s the heart and soul of this team. He’s kept us in so many games, and just to not show up and play that careless style, give them freebies all over the place. … Yeah, obviously, the first 20 really dictated the rest of the game.”

Artem Zub gave Ottawa a 1-0 lead at 2:37 of the first period. He stuffed in a loose puck on the goal line after Katchouk’s shot was redirected by Mark Kastelic between Luukkonen’s pads.

Katchouk made it 2-0 at 4:56, tipping Parker Kelly’s shot from the top of the right face-off circle past Luukkonen.

“It’s keeping the consistency with good effort, right habits,” Katchouk said. “The small things matter so much in this game. And obviously, it worked out tonight with the tip. But kudos to my linemates. ‘Kels’ and ‘Kassy,’ they worked hard to get the puck as well. Those two battle hard every night as well. We feed off each other, and it’s good to play with them.”

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Vasilevskiy stops 23 as surging Lightning beat Bruins – Sportsnet.ca

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