Under Fire: Patrik Laine benched in 3rd period as the Montreal Canadiens are in search for answers
Photo credit: Imagn Images
With his team trailing late in Game 2, Montreal Canadiens head coach Martin St- Louis made some bold lineup decisions by including benching one of his biggest names.
Patrik Laine who is literally a former 44-goal scorer was scotched to the bench for the entire third period of Wednesday's 3-1 loss to the Washington Capitals and he wasn't alone.
Joel Armia and Emil Heineman also saw severely reduced minutes as Martin St-Louis leaned heavily on his top trio of Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield and Juraj Slafkovsky to make a comeback.
Nick Suzuki played nearly 24 minutes of ice time which is more than any forward in the game and during this time, Patrik Laine finished with just 10:10 which is including over three minutes on the power play, but failed to take a single shift in the final period.
«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.»
Patrik Laine has struggled at even strength in this series and in two games, the Canadiens have controlled just 39.9% of shot attempts and a small 12.1% of expected goals with him on the ice.
The Capitals' physicality has overwhelmed Montreal's depth, and even with Patrik Laine's size, he's not known for playing a heavy game and he only has one lone hit in Game 2.
Through two games, only four Canadiens forwards have points at five-on-five and Laine isn't one of them.
With the series shifting to Montreal and the Habs down 2-0, Martin St-Louis may be forced to make even tougher lineup calls in Game 3.
| POLL | ||
AVRIL 24 | 70 ANSWERS Under Fire: Patrik Laine benched in 3rd period as the Montreal Canadiens are in search for answers Do you think the Washington Capitals will win game 3 at Bell Centre on Friday? | ||
| Yes | 37 | 52.9 % |
| No | 33 | 47.1 % |
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