The CH loses the match and the services of Kaiden Guhle

Dose
Crédit:

The Montreal Canadiens had quite a challenge on Tuesday night: the Winnipeg Jets.

Before tonight’s games, the Jets were tied for first place in the NHL with the Washington Capitals.

The Canadiens were trying to find their way back to victory, having lost their last two games.

It should be noted that Patrik Laine was facing his former team.

Here’s the lineup that Martin St-Louis presented for this match:

What stood out the most in the lineup were the changes made to the first two defensive pairings.

It was Alexandre Carrier who found himself to the right of Mike Matheson, while Lane Hutson played to the right of Kaiden Guhle.

Having more defensive stability with Carrier alongside Matheson could help him bounce back, as he has been struggling lately.

The Canadiens didn’t intend to take it easy at the start of the game.

Martin St-Louis’ team bombarded Connor Hellebuyck with 15 shots, and it paid off as Juraj Slafkovsky opened the scoring in this duel.

An eighth goal for the Slovak, while Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield picked up assists.

Slafkovsky unleashed a powerful one-timer, and Hellebuyck had no chance.

Interestingly, Slaf has scored his 4th goal in his last seven games, having only four after 40 games.

We’re starting to see the Slaf from the second half of the season.

A few minutes later, Kyle Connor brought everyone back to square one with his 28th of the season.

Connor is always dangerous.

After 20 minutes of play, it was 1-1, and the Canadiens led 15-7 in shots.

The second period was nothing like the first.

First, we had to wait over 12 minutes to see the Canadiens’ first shot on goal.

Just before that first shot, Mark Scheifele put his team ahead, and Gabe Vilardi collected his second assist of the game.

Michael Pezzetta had the best chance of his season to score, but he fanned on an open net after a beautiful pass from Brendan Gallagher.

And finally, Kyle Connor decided to double the Jets’ lead with his 29th goal just before the end of the period.

This time, the Jets were far superior to the Canadiens in this period, with 13 shots compared to only three.

The third period was tighter between the two teams than the first two.

However, Kaiden Guhle fell against the boards, and his right knee was affected.

The young defenseman quickly returned to the locker room and unfortunately did not return to the game.

There was even a moment when we saw Martin St-Louis receive an update on Guhle and his reaction said it all…

The Canadiens had several golden opportunities to close the gap in the third period, but to no avail.

In addition to losing Kaiden Guhle’s services, Montreal also lost the game, marking a third consecutive defeat.

The Canadiens’ next game will take place on Thursday night, as the Minnesota Wild will be visiting the Bell Centre. Marc-André Fleury is expected to face the Montreal club.

Overtime

Arber Xhekaj had a good game, but he especially stood out by delivering many checks. In the game, he recorded no less than eight, and that’s exactly what we want to see from the hulking defenseman.

He’s primarily there to stir the pot by delivering several hits and dropping the gloves when it’s time. He doesn’t drop the gloves as much as he did at the start, but that’s not a bad thing, as he visits the penalty box much less often. We know he can also help the Canadiens on the ice by supporting the offense from time to time.