- After an “immature effort” against the Los Angeles Kings a little less than two weeks ago, and a “lesson in humility” against the New York Rangers last week, the Canadiens players “embarrassed themselves” against the Seattle Kraken.
- Brandon Montour scored three goals and an assist, Jaden Schwartz had a goal and two assists and the visitors crushed the Montreal hockey club 8-2 on Tuesday night at the Bell Centre.
- The Habs thought they had relaunched their campaign with two wins in as many days this weekend. However, like last Tuesday in a 7-2 loss to the Rangers, they shot themselves in the foot too often early in the game against the Kraken, who scored four goals in just over 10 minutes of play.
- Head coach Martin St-Louis tried to calm things down by saying his club had not been dominated, as was the case against the Rangers.
- “It’s still tough to start the game like that,” he said. “Is it bad luck? Not really.
- “Certain actions by certain players at certain times led to scoring chances, but it wasn’t like against the Rangers,” St-Louis insisted.
- Goaltender Samuel Montembeault did nothing to help his teammates, being beaten five times on 10 shots, including three times on seemingly harmless long-range shots.
- “I can’t find the words. We embarrassed ourselves,” said Montembeault, who has allowed at least three goals in four of his last five games. “We don’t want a result like that, especially at the Bell Centre, in front of our fans. It’s up to us to come out strong and me to make the saves. It’s a game to forget.”
- Cole Caufield, with his ninth goal in 10 games this season, and Josh Anderson scored for the Canadiens (4-5-1). In relief of Montembeault, Cayden Primeau allowed three goals on 13 shots.
- “I wish I could explain it, it’s frustrating,” Jake Evans said. “We had a good weekend. I don’t know if we were overconfident and thought it was going to be a little easy. We’ve got to get back to what we executed this weekend.”
- Oliver Bjorkstrand and Jamie Oleksiak each had a goal and an assist, while Ryker Evans and Eeli Tolvanen also scored for the Kraken (5-4-1), who snapped a three-game losing streak (0-2-1). Chandler Stephenson had four assists and Jared McCann had two, while Joey Daccord made 28 saves.
- Forward Juraj Slafkovsky returned to the Canadiens’ lineup after missing three games with an upper-body injury.
- The Canadiens will play their next game on Thursday, when they visit the Washington Capitals.
- Scary departure
- Halloween night at the Bell Centre quickly turned into a nightmare for Habs fans, as Oleksiak surprised Montembeault after just 35 seconds of play with a long shot from the point that appeared to graze defenseman Mike Matheson.
- Evans then doubled the Kraken’s lead on a similar shot at 3:49. Once again, the Habs goalie looked bad on the sequence.
- The Kraken came back at the 7:27 mark, this time on the power play. Stephenson easily made the zone entry, then connected with Schwartz in the slot and the veteran scored on a good one-timer.
- Montembeault finally redeemed himself by stopping a shot from Oleksiak, who had found himself alone on the right wing.
- On the Kraken side, Daccord made his mark for the first time by frustrating Newhook, who had escaped.
- The Kraken added a fourth goal at 10:33 of the first period. Schwartz intercepted a pass from Arber Xhekaj behind the Habs net, then connected with Bjorkstrand in the slot for another easy goal on a one-timer.
- St. Louis finally called a timeout to whip up his team. The team found some vigor in its play afterward.
- The Canadiens threatened on the power play, but Lane Hutson and then Brendan Gallagher hit the post to Daccord’s right.
- The Habs finally got on the scoreboard with 3:49 left in the first period. Caufield took advantage of a rebound after a good shot from Logan Mailloux.
- The Kraken ended Montembeault’s night of work by scoring on the power play 1:32 into the second period. Montour scored with another long shot from the point that Montembeault struggled to follow.
- Primeau made a couple of good saves after entering the game, but he gave up at 8:44 when Montour took advantage of his own rebound to score his second straight goal.
- He was also beaten late in the second period by Brandon Tanev, after a bad pass from the Habs coming out of the zone. However, Tanev’s shot hit the post.
- Daccord made a nice save early in the third period against Mailloux, who had escaped. For the rest, the engagement was just a formality.
- Montour completed his hat trick with a powerful one-timer with 5:48 left during a four-on-three power play.
- Tolvanen turned the tables on Primeau with 4:46 left on a perfect pass from Josh Mahura.
- Anderson then scored a meaningless goal for the Canadiens 14 seconds later.
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