Canadiens take advantage of sloppy Canucks, continue progressing into 'good' team

MONTREAL — The Vancouver Canucks gave, and gave, and gave some more, but at least the Montreal Canadiens took.

Isn’t that one of the marks of a good team?

We can’t say for sure that’s what the Canadiens project to be throughout this season — we’re pretty certain it’s anything but what they’re supposed to be — but it’s fair to say that’s what they’ve looked like through 14 games, with a 7-6-1 record to back it up.

In their own division, they’ve accumulated as many points as the Tampa Bay Lightning, but rank behind them having played one more game, and they’re just two points behind the Florida Panthers and Toronto Maple Leafs, who have played the same number of games as Montreal.

The results are one thing. The various ways they’ve been achieved is another.

On many nights, the Canadiens’ top line has provided most of the scoring and their goaltenders have covered pucks — and all the blemishes — like Jake Allen did in a 3-2 shootout win over the Detroit Red Wings on Tuesday.

But on other nights, the team hasn’t needed its goaltender to be anything better than ordinary.

Not to take away from Samuel Montembeault. The Canadiens’ backup made 31 saves and improved his record to 3-1-1 and his save percentage to .930 on Wednesday night with a 5-2 win over the Vancouver Canucks at the Bell Centre.

But he didn’t need to be anything more than average against a Canucks team that all but gave away the game before the first 20 minutes were through.

It started with a needless hooking penalty from Tanner Pearson 200 feet away from his own net, giving the Canadiens a power play 43 seconds in.

Jonathan Drouin drew Vancouver’s penalty killers his way and dished off to Nick Suzuki, who scored his team-leading ninth goal of the season just 13 seconds into the man-advantage.

Sean Monahan won an offensive-zone faceoff clean and some casual interference from Drouin gave Arber Xhekaj plenty of time to get a shot off from the blue line to put the Canadiens up 2-0 in the ninth minute of play.

Less than four minutes later, Canucks forward J.T. Miller intercepted a Cole Caufield pass near his own blue line, backpedaled towards Canucks goaltender Thatcher Demko and put the puck right on Kirby Dach's stick to help the Canadiens go up 3-0.

Vancouver turned the neutral zone into a welcome mat the Canadiens wiped their feet on.

They said thanks and used their speed off the rush to establish 17 controlled entries and dominate the period, essentially demoralizing the Canucks.

“I think we played it smart,” said Canadiens defenceman Johnathan Kovacevic, who recorded his first NHL point when he dumped a puck up the boards and Canucks defenceman Jake Rathbone misplayed it to allow Mike Hoffman a 2-on-1 chance the forward buried to make it 4-0 Canadiens 13:01 into the second period.

“We weren’t extending ourselves too much, but we took advantage of our opportunities,” Kovacevic said, “and that’s what good teams do.”

It might be premature to refer to the Canadiens as one, but they are planting the seeds to become one as this season rolls along.

It’s in the way they’ve competed — even in the losses — and in the way they’ve found different ways to unexpectedly win seven times.

“Sometimes it’s our goalies, sometimes it’s our top guys, sometimes it’s the young Ds, so it’s nice that not every night that we have success it’s the same story,” Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis said. “I feel like that’s probably the best part of playing a team sport is spreading the impact on the result. And I think we’re getting that.”

And win or lose, the Canadiens are learning.

“I think we’re making a lot of progress,” said Brendan Gallagher, the 32-year-old, heart-and-soul winger who serves as a leader by example every time he steps on the ice.

On this night, he made a galvanizing shot block on Tyler Myers when the Canadiens were up 2-0 and motivated his team to keep pressing to extend the lead.

Right before Hoffman made it 4-0, Gallagher drew one of four Canadiens power plays in the second period by battling with both Demko and Oliver Ekman-Larsson.

He was causing chaos, as he usually does, but also continuing to stoke the fire the Canadiens needed to play with to close the game out.

They dipped a bit in the third when, as St. Louis pointed out, the Canucks, from down 4-0, naturally played with reckless abandon to put a couple of goals on the board.

But the Canadiens responded with their smallest player — five-foot-seven Caufield — taking a page out of Gallagher’s book and throwing himself into the six-foot-eight Myers to force a turnover Suzuki benefited from to set Dach up for his second goal of the game.

Again, the Canucks gave that one final time, but the Canadiens took.

And they grow from that.

“I think we’re understanding a style of play that we have to bring every night,” said Gallagher. “I think guys are understanding their roles and how you can contribute.

“But that said, it gets tougher and tougher. So, there’s going to be some more hard lessons that we have to learn. But I think so far the exciting thing is that when we get taught a little bit of a lesson, we learn from it and correct it pretty quickly.”