Mike Matheson took plenty of heat after the Montreal Canadiens' 6-5 overtime loss in Pittsburgh on Saturday night.
Marco D'Amico singled out a costly blue-line turnover, saying the extra puck handling took away all the time Matheson had to make a pass.
The Penguins' forecheck was simply too quick to overthink, according to D'Amico.
He also took a first-period penalty that some saw as a turning point, with the r/Habs account saying Montreal looked rattled from there.
Matheson finished at -2 in 26:24 of ice time, second only to Lane Hutson among Montreal skaters.
The criticism is fair, but the workload explains some of it. Nobody playing that many minutes against that forecheck gets through clean.
It's the server covering three sections because a coworker went home sick. A few orders are going to come out wrong.
Mike Matheson draws sharp criticism after costly decisions against the Penguins
Alexandre Carrier played just 8:32 before leaving, and he's now listed day-to-day with an undisclosed injury.
That pushed more minutes onto the rest of the blue line, with Hutson logging 29:06.
Noah Dobson, Matheson's partner on the top pair since the start of the season per Rumeurs de Transaction, finished at -1 with four penalty minutes.
Was it all on the blue line? The offense certainly held up its end.
Cole Caufield scored twice, including the opener off a Chris Kreider screen.
Nick Suzuki had a goal and three assists, and Hutson added three assists of his own.
Ivan Demidov and Kreider each finished with a goal and an assist.
Thomas Novak had two goals for Pittsburgh, including the overtime winner, while Evgeni Malkin had three points.
Jakub Dobes made 24 saves on 30 shots, and the Canadiens fell to 1-0-1.
Matheson is 32 and carries a $6,000,000 cap hit.
It was already an eventful night for him, after he got into it with Sidney Crosby earlier in the game.
The Canadiens open at home Tuesday against Carolina. Matheson gets the first chance to change the conversation, and in Montreal, the next mistake gets noticed just as fast.
Is Martin St-Louis playing Mike Matheson too many minutes?
Also read on Markerzone.com:
Winnipeg Jets informed crushing news on a Connor Hellebuyck trade
