Martin St. Louis made some bold lineup changes for his Montreal Canadiens team in the third period of Game 2.
The Hockey Hall of Fame player and now Habs head coach notably sat former 44-goal scorer Patrik Laine for the entirety of the third period. Laine did not receive a single shift in the final frame. Joel Armia and Emil Heineman were also stapled to the bench, taking a combined three total shifts as the Habs attempted to come back in the third period. They would go on to lose 3-1 after Connor McMichael scored a last-second empty-net goal.
The trio of Scandinavian forwards played a combined 1:39 of ice time in the third, as St. Louis shortened his bench in favor of double-shifting first-line forwards Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield, and Juraj Slafkovsky. Suzuki finished with 23:58 total ice time, more than every player on the Capitals not named John Carlson (24:10).
“The guys that I leaned on in the third, I thought they did a great job,” St. Louis said postgame. “As a coach, you make those decisions. You have this gut feeling, and I felt like the group responded when we shortened the bench, and I felt like it gave us a chance. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get the next goal, but I felt like it was there, just didn’t quite capitalize.”
Armia finished with a game-low 7:27 of ice time, while Heineman played just 7:39. Laine finished with 10:10 time on ice due to 3:07 of power-play action.
Laine, in particular, has been ineffective for the Canadiens against the Caps at five-on-five. During his 18:28 of five-on-five ice time across the two games, the Canadiens have seen just 39.9 percent of shot attempts, a staggeringly low 12.1 percent of expected goals, and 23 percent of scoring chances. They also have not created a single high-danger chance.
Meanwhile, the Capitals have created 11 high-danger chances of their own and outscored the Canadiens 2-0 with Laine on the ice. One of those goals came in overtime of Game 1 after Laine’s line iced the puck and left Alex Ovechkin, the NHL’s all-time leading goal scorer, unattended in front of goaltender Sam Montembeault.
The Capitals have also made a point of playing a very physical brand of hockey against the smaller and less experienced Canadiens. Laine, while one of Montreal’s larger players, does not typically play a hard-hitting style.
Laine threw one hit in Game 2 on Lars Eller but ended up on the wrong side of it as the Danish center saw him coming.
In the two games, the Habs have only managed two five-on-five goals. The only forwards with points on those goals are Brendan Gallagher, Josh Anderson, Christian Dvorak, and Nick Suzuki. They all have just one point each.
Laine managed most of his offense for the Canadiens during the regular season while on the power play. Fifteen of his 20 goals came with the Habs up a man, which was third most in the NHL and one more than Alex Ovechkin (14). Power plays are harder to come by in the postseason, with Montreal only receiving two in each game of the series in DC.
