The Montreal Canadiens shuffled their lines ahead of their last game, a decision necessitated by Ivan Demidov’s lower-body injury that will sideline last season’s Calder Trophy runner-up for as many as four weeks.
The series of moves didn’t produce the desired result on Tuesday, however. The Canadiens will look for better fortune on Thursday when they bid to snap a modest two-game skid in their game against the visiting Nashville Predators.
Elevated to the top line with captain Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield, Juraj Slafkovsky recorded his first goal of the season, but Montreal fell to the Carolina Hurricanes 6-4 on Tuesday.
Kirby Dach was moved to the second line and created an opportunity in the bottom six for Florian Xhekaj, who was inserted into the lineup to make his season debut. Xhekaj posted a minus-3 rating in 8:48 of ice time.
“I don’t think it impacts the way we’re going to play,” Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis said of the absence of Demidov. “If anything, it gives opportunity to somebody else to make some plays.
“And, if anything, we have the depth for that, and I think the way our lines are shaped, we have depth on all of them, and we can come in waves, and I’m confident that we can keep going knowing that we lost a pretty big piece.”
Unfortunately for Montreal, defenseman Noah Dobson’s mistakes didn’t help matters. He committed four giveaways on Tuesday.
“Especially in the second period,” Dobson said, per Sportsnet, “there’s at least a couple plays I want back.”
Suzuki followed up his four-point performance against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday with a goal and an assist versus the Hurricanes. That said, the captain saw plenty of areas for improvement.
“I think the power play has got to be better, the penalty kill has got to be better, 5-on-5 we have to be better,” Suzuki said.
Caufield, who was held off the scoresheet for the second time in three games, flustered the Predators last season. He scored the tying goal with 19.5 seconds left in the third period before converting in overtime of a 3-2 win over Nashville on Oct. 16. He also tallied in Montreal’s 4-1 victory on March 28.
Jakub Dobes, who has started all three games this season, is 2-0-0 with a 1.46 goals-against average and .946 save percentage in three career meetings with the Predators.
Like the Canadiens, Nashville also is looking to rebound after seeing a three-goal lead go by the boards in a 5-4 setback to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday.
“Pretty disappointing,” said Steven Stamkos, who joined Nils Hoglander in scoring two goals. “We played so good at the beginning, get a 3-0 lead, come out, start strong. I don’t know how many times we have to remind ourselves that taking penalties is a recipe to allow teams back in the game.
“… (At) 3-0, that should be a game we close out if we want to be a playoff team.”
Stamkos and Hoglander have combined to score six of the team’s seven goals this season.
Captain Roman Josi, who has the other goal, notched an assist on Tuesday to extend his season-opening point streak to three games. The stretch is tied for the longest run by a Predators defenseman since Ryan Suter in 2010-11.
