Timely Goal from Saad Sends Canadiens Home Empty Handed

photo from o.canada.com

Last night's game was a lot of fun. Certainly a lot more interesting than the 5-0 rout the Blackhawks gave the Canadiens in their own building last month. The Canadiens were a much better team than they were last time around, and they almost gave the Blackhawks a run for their money.


The only line not to get a goal last night was the explosive second line. Instead, goals came from the third (a Bryan Bickell pass to Michal Rozsival), fourth (Ben Smith's second of the season) and first (Brandon Saad's game winner with twenty seven seconds left), along with the Jonathan Toews power play goal early in the third. However, even if they're not producing together, they can't seem to stop racking up points, each member of the second line taking home an assist (for Patrick Kane and Kris Versteeg to remain point per game players, the only ones on the Blackhawks currently).

Brandon Saad hasn't been producing with the drama and flair that the second line has, but he's been quietly putting up points, and currently sits in fifth place on the Blackhawks. He has goals in three straight games, and has two game winners on the season already. This game marked the first time the Canadiens lost a game this season when leading after two periods, and the Blackhawks have now outscored their opponents 31-12 in the third period. In five games this season, Antti Raanta has allowed ten goals, and only one of those has been in the third period.

If the offence was on fire, the defence was a little lacking, for both teams. Both the first goal for Chicago and the first goal for Montreal happened because of a defensive breakdown that allowed the scorer prime position. Carey Price and Raanta didn't stand a chance. Before this game, the Blackhawks had the least goals allowed against so far this season in the league, with forty nine in twenty six games. They now sit at second, behind Nashville, who have allowed two goals less but have a game in hand.

Special teams were both successful and unsuccessful last night. Chicago managed to score a power play goal after going three games without, but they also gave up a power play goal, their first since Calgary. They had killed off almost twenty straight penalties. They still sit top of the league, with a 91% success rate on the penalty kill.

My Three Stars of the Night

3. Ben Smith. Smith broke a nineteen game goal drought with his goal against Montreal last night. That fourth line of him, Marcus Kruger and currently Joakim Nordstrom is getting good chances and doing excellent things with the puck, and Smith and Kruger's penalty kill performance is nothing short of outstanding.

2. Brandon Saad. It's a contract year for Saad, and he's doing all the right things to make sure he's going to get paid what he deserves. His second game winner of the season came with twenty seven seconds remaining, and if that's not clutch, I don't know what is.

1. Jonathan Toews. Like it's been mentioned a few times, the Blackhawks rarely do well when Toews has a bad game. Luckily, those are few and far between, and he had a great one against Montreal, scoring the tying goal early in the third and then assisting on the game winner about fifteen minutes later.

Next game: December 6th, vs. Predators