About Last Night: Habs sloppy in 6-4 loss to Blue Jackets

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Spare a second for the poor Montreal Gazette beat reporter, who was subjected to 6 deafening pictures of the Nationwide Area cannon in a 6-4 Montreal Canadiens loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets on Thursday.

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It was a wild end, with each groups combining for six targets in a see-saw third interval that ended within the house staff’s favour.

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Miami (Ohio) College alum Sean Kuraly led the way in which with two targets for the injury-riddled Jackets, who have been lacking Patrik Laine and Zach Werenski, amongst others.

The cannon received warmed up within the first. Cole Sillinger’s shot hit Sam Montembeault’s stick after which Jordan Harris earlier than going into the online.

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Earlier than the top of the primary interval, Columbus made it 2-0 off the faceoff win by Boone Jenner. The puck went again to Gavin Beyreuther, who arrange Gustav Nyqvist again door for the profitable one-timer.

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Arber Xhekaj made himself heard within the first, sending Liam Foudy into the Montreal bench with a test.

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Harris redeemed himself within the second, leaping in to obtain a move from an airborne Nick Suzuki earlier than beating Joonas Korpisalo for his first to place Montreal on the board 2-1.

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Not the Habs’ best recreation up to now, however with 2.5 seconds within the center body they tied it 2-2 off the stick of former Jacket Josh Anderson.

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One way or the other, that’s not how the interval ended. On the subsequent faceoff, Xhekaj and Mathieu Olivier dropped the gloves, with every receiving blows.

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Now for the bonkers third interval. It began with Johnny Gaudreau profiting from a David Savard slip-up and utilizing his persistence to create the proper tic-tac-toe play with linemates Kent Johnson and Jenner. The latter completed it to reinstate Columbus’s lead at 3-2.

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Lower than three minutes later, Mike Hoffman protected the puck ready for a line change, permitting Brendan Gallagher to pot his third from a pointy angle to tie it up as soon as once more.

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Simply 43 seconds after that, Kuraly outmuscled Harris and beat Montembeault for a highlight-reel purpose to make it 4-3 C-Bus.

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Then exactly a minute after, it was Mathieu Olivier with a set play off the draw you will have seen coming to provide Columbus a two-goal benefit.

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Hopefully you didn’t rise up to stretch your legs. On the subsequent shift, simply eight seconds later, Suzuki discovered room to financial institution a shot off Korpisalo’s pad and in to tug Montreal to inside one 5-4.

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Habs referred to as a timeout with 2:23 to go and pulled Montembeault, however 10 seconds later Kuraly sealed it with an empty netter for the 6-4 win.

Evidently while you quit 11 targets in two consecutive video games, there’s in all probability some work to be performed on the defensive facet of issues. Mike Matheson is nearing a return, and it couldn’t come at a greater time. Though the unique seven blue-liners have held up higher than anticipated up to now this season, it’s nonetheless a whole lot of accountability for 4 freshmen to shoulder, and the smooth-skating veteran will seemingly be thrown right into a big-minute position from the get-go, not not like Joel Edmundson when he got here again from damage.

The liveblog commenters nonetheless noticed the trouble on Thursday, nevertheless it’s laborious to cowl up so many errors. Simply the pure ebbs and flows of an extended season, or an indication of struggles to return?

3. “Lol individuals appear to overlook we’ve 4 rookies taking part in defence there ARE going to be errors.” — John Crew

2. “I hope this isn’t the beginning of the Habs’ annual Nov.-Dec. 10-game dropping streak.” — Bob Taylor

1. “I like watching Guhle skate. Makes it look really easy. That sequence behind our web the place he performed preserve away with Cole Sillinger leading to a excessive sticking penalty was enjoyable to look at. Kaiden is the smoothest skating defenceman in a Habs uniform since Karl Dykhuis.” — Michael Manner