Let’s get this out the way before we start the plus/minus portion of this piece: The controversy surrounding who was tending the Vegas Golden Knights’ crease for Game 4 against the Montreal Canadiens was absolutely needless.
The spotlight as far as Vegas is concerned should be pointed firmly at the Golden Knights’ forward group — except Nicolas Roy.
Max Pacioretty and Mark Stone entered Sunday night’s game with one assist between them. When you add Jonathan Marchessault’s totals, that’s three assists among them. Only two forwards, Roy and Mattias Janmark, have scored goals for the Golden Knights, including Roy’s overtime winner Sunday night, which has completely changed the outlook of this series.
And on a night when the Canadiens were the better team offensively, it was Montreal that lost the game 2-1 in overtime. The Canadiens led 18-0 in high-danger chances through regulation, per Natural Stat Trick.
It was a game they should have won, but didn’t. But when you consider the Canadiens won Game 3 playing the opposite role, all you can do is shrug your shoulders at the hockey gods swinging the pendulum.
Entering Sunday night, the pressure was on the favoured Golden Knights — and rightfully so. But the Canadiens also entered Game 4 with something to prove. They weren’t as dangerous offensively in Game 3 until overtime, yet still won. An 11-shot first period Sunday was a step in the right direction for the Canadiens (all shots coming from forwards), especially with the Pressure Line getting chances. Their efforts in the second didn’t result in an avalanche of goals, but they did get one from Paul Byron. In the third, Cole Caufield had a chance to ice the game on a breakaway. And it looked like he would, but he didn’t. Had he scored, the Canadiens might have left Bell Centre with a 3-1 series lead.
Instead, the Golden Knights have a chance to build on the momentum after stealing a game on the road they didn’t completely deserve. It didn’t hurt that Robin Lehner held the fort with a 27-save performance.
Hockey’s funny that way.
With that, it’s on to breaking down the good and the bad. This was one of those rare games in which it was hard to fault many Canadiens players for their play. Jesperi Kotkaniemi and Jon Merrill, for example, fall somewhere between pluses and minuses.
Oh, and don’t worry. We’ll get to the officiating.
The pluses
The Pressure Line (Joel Armia-Eric Staal-Corey Perry): Another solid night. Perry flew around the offensive zone, and it’s a tough ask to handle him if you’re a defenceman. The Golden Knights had to trip him, or make some kind of contact on him, to slow him down. Remarkably, he didn’t draw any penalties in the first period. But despite being marked, he proved to be quite the handful. Perry nearly fed Staal with a goal-of-the-playoffs candidate as well in the first period.
The Shea Weber-Ben Chiarot pairing: One big reason the line of Pacioretty, Stone and Alex Tuch (or whichever centre they insert between the two) hasn’t been effective in this series is that they haven’t been given space to manoeuvre. There was a stretch in the second period when Pacioretty and Stone were deep in the offensive zone with Tomas Nosek. Pacioretty fed Stone with a pass, but since the latter’s back was turned to the net, he wasn’t in a prime position to score, or even receive the puck. Stone and Pacioretty couldn’t escape the clutches of Weber or Chiarot whenever they tried to handle the puck, whether along the boards or behind the net. Their shift ended with Pacioretty losing the puck as Weber closed in on him. Brendan Gallagher then scooped up the puck and went up ice.
Weber and Chiarot were both excellent in front of the net, preventing clear scoring chances by using their bodies and sticks. Sunday night’s performance might have been their best together all postseason.
Paul Byron: Very few NHLers can catch Byron when he’s in open space. He put himself in the right place by skating up ice before corraling the puck with his skates before breaking away, making an impressive move and scoring a huge goal.
The Canadiens’ penalty kill: The Golden Knights have yet to score a power-play goal all series. Before Byron’s goal Sunday, Montreal fended off Vegas’ best power-play effort yet. Alex Pietrangelo had a shot ring off the post, but that was as close as they got. The Canadiens have killed 26 consecutive penalties.
The minuses
I don’t feel anybody on the Canadiens played too poorly Sunday night. And I think it’s much too easy to pick on Erik Gustafsson who, once again, played sparingly. Even Jon Merrill, who has also been so-so at times in the playoffs, looked decent, and I don’t think he was worth putting here.
The officiating: For whatever reason, the referees decided to tuck their whistles in their pockets. Perry couldn’t draw a penalty despite fielding contact at the front of the net. A Joel Edmundson cross-check from behind in full view of the referee went uncalled. And whatever the hell this is:
Seriously, it took a back-and-forth between Nosek and Weber with a little over five minutes to go in the second period before the officials called any infraction. Weber had been hit from behind several times before retaliating.
But wait, there’s more!
Before the end of the second period, Brayden McNabb straight up punched Nick Suzuki in the face in full view of referee Chris Lee. Not an obstructed view. Not from an eye in the sky. Lee had a front-row seat to it all and didn’t call anything.
This officiating crew is not fit to be on the ice for the remainder of this series. They were absolutely awful in full view of the hockey world, and it’s raising serious questions on how the game should be officiated in the postseason.