The Canadiens won their second straight preseason game, but even head coach Martin St-Louis admitted after the game that it was difficult to properly evaluate his players when nearly half of the game was played on special teams.
Michael Pezzetta, twice, and Nick Suzuki scored and the Montreal hockey club defeated the New Jersey Devils 3-0 on Tuesday night at the Bell Centre.
Unlike the day before, when Lane Hutson, Oliver Kapanen and Patrik Laine looked good in a 5-0 win over the Philadelphia Flyers, no one really stood out against the Devils.
No Canadiens player had a particularly difficult evening either.
“It wasn’t an exciting game like yesterday [Monday],” St. Louis admitted. “The execution wasn’t great, but I think based on our advanced stats, we only gave up four scoring chances at five-on-five. That’s something we’ve been working on this week and I’m happy with that.”
However, counting on four of the five regular members of its first power play unit, the Canadiens were 0-for-8 in this phase of the game. They notably wasted a four-minute power play in the first period and a two-minute two-man power play in the third period.
St-Louis responded coldly that his group had “not yet worked on the power play” when a reporter asked him if there was anything to take away from this poor performance.
He acknowledged, however, that all the time spent on special teams deprived him of time to evaluate his players.
“There’s no rhythm to the game,” St. Louis insisted. “Especially in the first two or three preseason games, it would be nice to play five-on-five. It would be easier for the coach to make evaluations. But the referees have their job to do.”
Samuel Montembeault made 11 saves in 31:28 of play, while Connor Hughes stopped 13 shots. They responded to Cayden Primeau and Jakub Dobes, who had blanked the Flyers on Monday.
“It’s good, two wins at the Bell Centre,” said Montembeault. “Each time, we didn’t allow many shots. The goalie coach [Eric Raymond] came to see us at the end and he had a big smile on his face. He must be happy after two games.”
Defenseman Logan Mailloux was the only Canadiens player to play Monday against the Flyers who was back in the lineup against the Devils.
Jake Allen gave up one shot on 13 shots before giving up his spot in the Devils net to Nico Daws at 8:03 of the second period. Daws was beaten once on 15 shots.
The Canadiens will continue their pre-season schedule on Thursday night, when they visit the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Without shine
Both teams lacked discipline in the first period, with the referees handing out five minor penalties.
Montembeault made his mark while shorthanded, stopping good shots from Brian Halonen and Xavier Parent.
For his part, Allen made an acrobatic save when a pass in front of the net deflected against Joel Armia.
During the first twenty, Allen also twice frustrated Owen Beck, who had stood out in the enclave.
“If you can find space in that area on the ice, you can be dangerous,” Beck said. “Good for my teammates, who were able to get the puck to me. Unfortunately, I didn’t score.”
The Canadiens opened the scoring 2:42 into the second period. Shortly after a faceoff in Devils territory, Pezzetta surprised Allen, who had his vision obscured by Florian Xhekaj.
“I want to work hard, repeat the same things and I believe good things will happen,” Pezzetta said.
Allen was beaten a second time around midway through the period, but the referees disallowed the goal because Xavier Simoneau interfered with the Devils’ goaltender.
The Canadiens threatened on the power play after Daws came on. Juraj Slafkovsky missed the target on a perfect play, then Daws was alert at Sean Farrell’s expense.
Hughes also stood out after coming into the game, stopping a point-blank shot by Kevin Labanc as the Devils had a two-man advantage.
Then late in the second period, Cole Caufield got away with the teams playing four-on-four. Daws made the save with his left pad.
Beck took a third dangerous shot from the slot early in the third period, but Daws made the save.
Xhekaj also had a great scoring opportunity when he was left behind in front of the Devils net. However, he was unable to complete his move with a backhand.
Suzuki finally gave his team a two-goal cushion with 2:53 left, when he tipped a pass from William Trudeau into the net.
Pezzetta closed the books by scoring into an empty net with 22.1 seconds left on the clock.
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