GDT Game #65 - Montreal Canadiens @ Seattle Kraken - Wednesday, March 11th @ 10:30PM EST

[HabsWEST]

12 minutes ago, Helmethead said:

Hutson casually with 51 pts. 
 

This kid 😍

And now 2nd most assists by a DEF in the league and just 2 assists behind Makar for league lead and 1 game in hand still.

 

And creeping up for total points by D overall too.

 

[Butterface]

Big big big big kill needed here.. 4-3 and just over 2 mins to go…. 

[Butterface]

😞

[BCHabnut]

Oof. Tied up

[sbhatt]

Damn...what a letdown.

[xXx..CK..xXx]

Dumb penalty near the end and dumb face-off formation in overtime. 

[Butterface]

What a drag. 
 

Penalties killed us.

 

Feel badly for Slaf and Doby. 

[Butterface]

Yeah.. set play.. ? Let their centre win it and I’ll have jumped by their player for a breakaway ? Smart play if that’s was the plan, poor face-off set up as you say.

[Commandant]

If the plan is to win the faceoff backwards... what is the plan to retrieve the faceoff with all three on the red line.

 

Makes no sense.

[BCHabnut]

Too many icing plays in the 3rd. Not enough support on breakouts. Seattle forechecked well all night though.

[xXx..CK..xXx]

As soon as I saw the overhead camera angle from above with everyone at the red line I thought it was weird. 2 seconds later, Kraken were on a breakaway. 3 seconds later, the puck was in the back of our net. 

[JoeLassister]

It is not a weird setup. It's the way the C won the draw that is not efficient. 

 

When the opposing team brings the 3rd man to the red line, you have to do too, otherwise you're giving up every 50-50 faceoffs. 
Now, if you do that,  make sure you're trying to win the faceoffs sideways, not toward your net. 

[JoeLassister]

That being said, today at noon, the whole league will have seen this play, including refs and linesmen.

They don't allow C to jump the gun on faceoffs like that and they throw them out of the faceoffs several times per game.  Not sure they will let the W jump the faceoff again like that in the future. 

[DON]

7 hours ago, BCHabnut said:

Too many icing plays in the 3rd. Not enough support on breakouts. Seattle forechecked well all night though.

End of back to back and road trip... i suppose.

Hutson & Slafkovski pad their stats. 5 points 8 shots in last 2 games cant hurt his confidence.

I wasnt sure if he thought his tip was too high and assumed would be called back, or was posing.

Will he get to 20g this year?

4 of 8 points in trip, seems OK.

 

[xXx..CK..xXx]

2 hours ago, DON said:

End of back to back and road trip... i suppose.

Hutson & Slafkovski pad their stats. 5 points 8 shots in last 2 games cant hurt his confidence.

I wasnt sure if he thought his tip was too high and assumed would be called back, or was posing.

Will he get to 20g this year?

4 of 8 points in trip, seems OK.

 

My initial thought when I saw the way he reacted was that he thought the deflection was too high. He confirmed it in an interview. He thought the refs wouldn’t even call it a good goal. 

[The Chicoutimi Cucumber]

13 hours ago, xXx..CK..xXx said:

In honour of @The Chicoutimi Cucumber starting us off with a victory last night, I present you with today’s game day thread. 
 

 

Today’s matchup:

 

Montreal Canadiens @ Seattle Kraken - Wednesday, March 11th, 2025 @ 10:30PM EST - Climate Pledge Arena

 

Montreal Canadiens

 

Caufield - Suzuki - Slafkovský

Roy - Newhook - Gallagher

Laine - Dvorak - Anderson

Pezzetta - Evans - Heineman

 

Hutson - Struble

Matheson - Carrier

Xhekaj - Savard

 

Dobeš

Montembeault 

 

 

Seattle Kraken

 

Schwartz - Beniers - Kakko

McCann - Wright - Nyman

Tolvanen - Stephenson - Eberle 

Eyssimont - Hayden - Burakovsky

 

Dunn - Larsson

Oleksiak - Montour 

Evans - Mahura

 

Daccord

Grubauer

 

 

Storyline:

 

Tonight’s matchup brings us a battle between two former 1st round draft picks in Shane Wright and Juraj Slafkovský. Shane Wright, having been touted as potentially being the number 1 overall draft pick in the 2022 NHL draft, the Montreal Canadiens chose to select Slovakian Juraj Slafkovský instead. Similar to Filip Zadina a few years earlier, this left Montreal with a target on its back involving another young high draft pick. While Shane Wright never explicitly said anything similar to promising to “fill their nets with pucks”, it took not so much as the look on Wright’s face to know how he felt towards the organization 

 

While @The Chicoutimi Cucumber himself as well as some others have often pointed to Logan Cooley potentially having been the best pick of the draft, the pick has turned out to be an alright selection when all things considered. The Habs may have not drafted a Connor McDavid with the 1st overall pick, but they did draft the player who currently has the most points out of anyone selected that year and a player who still has room to grow. When all is said and done, he is currently a 1st line player.

 

 

Shane Wright has not had the same start to his career, but has been playing well as of late. In the 2025 calendar year, Wright has an impressive 22 points in 27 games.

 

In terms of the game itself, the Habs are coming off a 4-2 victory over the Canucks and tonight’s game against Seattle represents the final game of the Canadiens’ western road trip where they hold a 1-1-1 record. Each game on the trip has held equal significance as the Habs find themselves on the precipice of a playoff position. The Canadiens will look to end their road trip with a winning record this evening.

 

 

While the Habs are entering this evening on the second end of a back to back, Seattle, on the other hand has had a few days off since their last match, a 4 - 2 loss against the Washington Capitals. While the Kraken didn’t play poorly and outplayed Washington for long stretches of the game, Seattle has lost 3 out of their last 4 and 5 out of their last 7 matches. The Kraken are the first team the Canadiens have faced on this road trip without playoff aspirations and so the Habs should play as though they are the more desperate team.

 

 

Previous Meetings:

October 29th, 2024: Kraken 8 - 2 Habs

 

This reality should be another storyline. Time to get some revenge for that 8-2 shellacking near the beginning of the season in late 2024.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you for this great GDT. I'm grateful to know that this is a community that will come out and pitch in when a contributor isn't able to hold up their end of the bargain!

 

I apologize to everyone for not doing my job and launching this GDT. I had two very close friends go through really terrible crises yesterday (one's wife died, the other was laid off without warning despite being stellar at their very specialized job) and it completely slipped my mind. Special thanxXx to xXx for stepping up (and for showing such a cool awareness of things I've spouted in this forum, LOL).

 

But now I get the blame for a loss!!! Where does this leave me for the next GDT?

[GNick]

That was a set play. Left winger never took his man

[alfredoh2009]

1 hour ago, The Chicoutimi Cucumber said:

 

Thank you for this great GDT. I'm grateful to know that this is a community that will come out and pitch in when a contributor isn't able to hold up their end of the bargain!

 

I apologize to everyone for not doing my job and launching this GDT. I had two very close friends go through really terrible crises yesterday (one's wife died, the other was laid off without warning despite being stellar at their very specialized job) and it completely slipped my mind. Special thanxXx to xXx for stepping up (and for showing such a cool awareness of things I've spouted in this forum, LOL).

 

But now I get the blame for a loss!!! Where does this leave me for the next GDT?

 

wishing you and your loved one all the best in these terrible times for them.

[DON]

3 hours ago, GNick said:

That was a set play. Left winger never took his man

Hope is a coaching lesson for Marty.

 

BAD D-men!

I think Savard (and Gallagher) retiring after the next 16 games might be good idea.

Just too slow.

[dlbalr]

6 hours ago, The Chicoutimi Cucumber said:

But now I get the blame for a loss!!! Where does this leave me for the next GDT?

 

With the Habs losing this one, I'd suggest you do the Florida one and go from there.

[xXx..CK..xXx]

9 hours ago, The Chicoutimi Cucumber said:

But now I get the blame for a loss!!! Where does this leave me for the next GDT?

She’s all yours. Take the next game. If the Habs win against Florida, we’ll forgive you (no pressure) 

[tomh009]

20 hours ago, DON said:

End of back to back and road trip... i suppose.

Four points from four games on that swing, it could have been worse. Calgary was not to be the way Wolf played so I think I'll be satisfied with the total.

 

What I see the biggest obstacle is the total of three (!) games against Florida in the next two weeks and a bit. With the Panthers fighting to win the division, will the Habs be able to match them?

[DON]

3 hours ago, tomh009 said:

Four points from four games on that swing, it could have been worse. Calgary was not to be the way Wolf played so I think I'll be satisfied with the total.

 

What I see the biggest obstacle is the total of three (!) games against Florida in the next two weeks and a bit. With the Panthers fighting to win the division, will the Habs be able to match them?

No.

But, playing experience vs a strong contending team later in season cant hurt, other than for poor Montembeault/Dobes.

[GHT120]

4 hours ago, tomh009 said:

With the Panthers fighting to win the division, will the Habs be able to match them?

 

46 minutes ago, DON said:

No.

But, playing experience vs a strong contending team later in season cant hurt, other than for poor Montembeault/Dobes.

 

THOSE games are exactly the value of "being in the mix" ... in a bizarre way getting beaten down might have long-term value by showing the core how high the bar is to be a top team (kind of a very minor version of the Oilers having to lose to the Islanders to become the 4 Cups in 5 years OILERS)

[xXx..CK..xXx]

Boston just beat the Panthers from 2-0 down late in the third the other day. As things stand, we’re a better team than Boston this year. Do I expect to win all three games versus Florida? Nope. Can we compete with them? Yes.

 

How quickly we forget our run we had earlier in the season where we beat all the (recent) former Stanley Cup championship teams consecutively, including Florida 4-0. A lot of defeatists are popping their heads out by saying we have no chance. 2 of the 3 games are at home to boot.
 

With all that being said, as I looked at the schedule over the past few weeks, the games against Florida did stand out to me as well.