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Hutson and Bolduc Lead Canadiens to 4-1 Victory
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- Hutson and Bolduc Lead Canadiens to 4-1 Victory
Eric Bolte-Imagn Images
The Montreal Canadiens hosted the Chicago Blackhawks on Thursday night, without having to face star forward Connor Bedard , who has been sidelined with an arm injury.
As per usual, Lane Hutson was the one driving the charge from the blue line, assisting on the game-tying and game-winning goal for the Canadiens, who emerged with a well-deserved 4-1 victory.
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Let's dive into the highlights!
Man-To-Man
There's been a lot of ink spilt when it comes to Montreal's defensive setup, which is essentially a man-to-man system.
Despite what you may hear, man-to-man is very common in the NHL, and last I checked, roughly half the teams in the league run a variation of it. The issue isn't the system per se, but rather, how teams apply it. Players must have razor-sharp focus, or things will go horribly wrong, and the optics will be terrible.
That was the case when the Blackhawks scored on the first shot of the game, as Jayden Struble and Juraj Slafkovsky were confused by the movement, which sent the man-to-man system into a chaotic state.
Bell Centre First
Believe it or not, Zachary Bolduc finally scored his first goal at the Bell Centre, his eighth goal of the year. All things considered, he's played fairly well at home, but sometimes the hockey gods simply want to toy with someone, and that appears to have been the case for Bolduc.
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Hutson assisted on the goal, marking the first time in Canadiens history that a defenceman has managed to produce 60 points in a calendar year. Seeing as the NHL season is based on the schedule, and not the calendar year, I never put much stock into stats tied to the latter, but there's no doubt it's an impressive feat when you consider elite blueliners such as Larry Robinson, Guy Lapointe, and Chris Chelios have played for the Habs.
I Have A Bone To Pick With You!
It's not quite Festivus, but I have to get something off my chest.
I'm sick of two things.
The first is the offside challenge, but that goes without saying.
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For what it's worth, the Canadiens lost two goals via the offside challenge on Thursday night.
That rule was clearly put into place by Satan himself, and there's only so much we can do to fight evil in this world. That being said, I'm only a few offside challenges away from becoming one of those low-level villains that tend to die very early in superhero movies.
If I were in a room with Beelzebub, Thanos, and the offside challenge, and I had a gun with just two bullets, I would shoot the offside challenge twice, and then proceed to give myself blisters by beating it to a pulp via pistol whipping.
But I digress, slightly .
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When it comes to things players can control, I absolutely loathe seeing soft passes. They almost always result in ugly giveaways.
That's why it's so enjoyable to watch Ivan Demidov at play. Everything he does is at full speed, involving hard, crisp passes.
You have to be alert, but there's also a very good chance that it'll lead to a high-danger scoring chance.
Some Offence Appears!
The Canadiens finally solved Spencer Knight twice in the third period, starting with yet another goal at the Bell Centre from Bolduc.
Shockingly, or not , Hutson assisted on the play.
The fourth line then followed it up with an insurance goal, and though they originally credited Noah Dobson with the marker, I'm fairly certain they'll revise it and award it to Owen Beck, making it his first career goal in the NHL.
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Either way, Beck enjoyed one of his best games in a Canadiens uniform versus the Blackhawks, and that bodes well for his spot in the lineup heading into the New Year.
The Montreal Canadiens are back in action on Thursday, facing the Pittsburgh Penguins at the Bell Centre. The puck drop is scheduled for 7 pm ET.
All Montreal Canadiens statistics are 5v5 unless otherwise noted, via Natural Stat Trick .
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