The NHL’s best player, Carey Price, put his stamp on Montreal’s 3-2 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins when he stopped Sidney Crosby’s point-blank scoring chance with 2:18 remaining in the third period.
It was one of 31 saves Price made to hand the Penguins their third consecutive loss to start the season. It was the fifth time in their history that the team has started a season 0-3.
On the flip side, the win allowed the Canadiens to accomplish something they’d never managed before in their 106-year existence: win four straight games on the road to start a season.
Now it’s back to Montreal, where the Canadiens will attempt to put a halt to their streak of ruining home openers when they play host to the New York Rangers on Thursday.
Before moving on from this game, let’s zero in on five takeaways.
Scoring first: a new trend for Montreal
The Canadiens were an abysmal first-period team last season.
After finishing second-last in first-period scoring (44 goals) in 2014-15, Montreal has managed to score in the opening frame in all four of their games to start the 2015-16 campaign.
And after not holding a single lead going into the first intermission of their first 18 games of the 2014-15 season, the Canadiens have held the lead after the first period in all four of their games this season.
Lastly, the Canadiens allowed 55 goals against in the first period last season but have allowed zero in their first four games this season.
Why is this important?
The Canadiens were 15-3-3 when leading after the first period last season, and we know what their record is this fall.
It was Max Pacioretty who opened the scoring in Tuesday’s game against Pittsburgh, just as he had done in Toronto on opening night. David Desharnais and Tomas Plekanec scored the other first-period goals in back-to-back wins over Boston and Ottawa last weekend.
Alexei Emelin finding his game
Emelin has long been the target of widespread criticism within the Canadiens’ fan base.
Ever since Emelin tore the anterior cruciate and medial collateral ligaments in his left knee in 2013, his mobility has suffered. So has his confidence.
Emelin is not a possession magnet. He’s a defensive defenceman, who often handles the puck as though it were a grenade on his stick. You won’t see a lot of tape-to-tape passes from him out of his own zone, his decision making often leaves much to be desired, and rarely will he contribute on the offensive side of the puck.
Add in that Emelin is on a contract that pays him $4.1 million for this season, plus two more, and it puts all that scrutiny into context. But Emelin can hit, and on a team that lacks a consistent physical presence, his value can only increase if he’s willing to throw his weight around.
It’s not just about frequency — Emelin has 753 hits in 236 NHL games — it’s about punishing and frustrating the opposition without sacrificing sound defensive positioning.
That’s what Emelin did with hits on Pittsburgh’s Evgeni Malkin, Patric Hornqvist and Chris Kunitz Tuesday.
Simplicity leads to power play scoring
Who would have predicted the Penguins would start their season 0-9 on the power play?
When you have so many lethal threats in Crosby, Malkin, Phil Kessel and Kris Letang, sometimes you get bogged down in trying to make the perfect play.
The Canadiens know a thing or two about that. They have P.K. Subban , Andrei Markov, Alex Galchenyuk and Alexander Semin, but it was Pacioretty who took matters into his own hands by just curling to the top of the circle and letting a simple wristshot fly for a goal in the second period.
With that, the Canadiens improved to 2-for-16 on the power play this season.
It’s remarkable they’ve won four games with those numbers, but that might have something to do with their balance at even strength.
Spreading the love
Pacioretty is no stranger to leading Montreal’s scoring charge. He’s already got four this season, which accounts for 30 per cent of Montreal’s goals.
But he’s not doing it all on his own. Plekanec has three, Lars Eller has two, Galchenyuk, Torrey Mitchell and Desharnais each have one.
And Tomas Fleischmann’s first as a Canadien stood as the game-winning goal against Pittsburgh.
Only three members of the team are still without a point — Emelin, Tom Gilbert and Devante Smith-Pelly.
All this has Montreal scoring at a respectable clip of 3.25 goals per game. They haven’t scored less than three in any of their four games.
Shutting down Crosby
In his 15 home games against the Canadiens, Crosby had never been held off the score sheet (12 goals, 12 assists). In Game 16, Montreal put an end to that streak. In 94 of his previous 99 games, Crosby had generated a Corsi For of 50 per cent or better, but the Canadiens held him to 45 percent on Tuesday. They did it with Plekanec, Pacioretty, Subban and Markov for most of the night. But Montreal’s top checkers got a lot of help from the fourth line of Mitchell, Smith-Pelly and Brian Flynn.
It’s been a frustrating start to the season for Crosby.
Coming into the game, he had been held shot-less and scoreless over a two-game stretch for only the second time in his NHL career. The game-saver from Price in the third period wasn’t the only impressive stop he made on the Penguins’ captain. Crosby’s first shot of the season came on a two-on-one, which Price held his ground on to take away the short side — turning away what would’ve been a goal on many other goaltenders in the league.
