CANADIENS
Montreal

4-2

AVALANCHE
Colorado

Lineup

Forward lines and defense pairings 

[one_half]Pacioretty – Byron – Hudon
Lehkonen – Plekanec – Gallagher
Galchenyuk – Drouin – Deslauriers
De La Rose – Froese – L. Shaw
[/one_half]

[one_half_last]Alzner – Petry
Benn – Jerabek
Mete – Schlemko
[/one_half_last]

Goaltenders

Price
Niemi

Scratches

Daniel Carr, Joe Morrow

Injuries

Ales Hemsky – concussion, Shea Weber – lower-body, Phillip Danault – concussion, Andrew Shaw – lower-body

Game Report 

It’s games like the one tonight that conclusively demonstrate that Canadiens fans could never truly embrace the tank.

No matter how liberally one spreads the lipstick, this Canadiens season is a pig. There will be no playoffs in April. So, every loss brings Montreal closer to it’s June goal of a prime draft slot.

But yet, Canadiens fans thoroughly enjoyed their team pulling together to knock off the league’s hottest team. It was one of the more memorable games of the season and a complete effort. Well, as complete as it gets in 2017-18, but let’s try to stay positive.

The Habs game plan was obvious from the drop of the puck as Avs players found red jerseys in their faces immediately. Jeff Petry explained that the message before the game was to “close quickly.”

Canadiens did just that ensuring that the Avalanche were not given the space to generate speed. The Habs forechecked aggressively and outhit the Avs 43-23. The Canadiens won battles all over the ice and used a style of play that accelerated fatigue for a Colorado team that played in Toronto on Monday night.

Montreal completely neutralized the Avs speed.

The home team dominated the faceoff dot and possession, won the special teams battle and received superior goaltending. Apart from the stumbles towards the end of the game that cost Carey Price a shutout, the Canadiens were the better team in each of the three periods.

So why aren’t Habs fans treated to this kind of performance every night? Consistency is one of the things that separates playoff teams from those left on the sidelines come April. Savor this victory and let it fuel your hope for October.

~~~

▲  Carey Price, Alex Galchenyuk, Artturi Lehkonen, Jonathan Drouin, Jeff Petry, Max Pacioretty, Brendan Gallagher, Tomas Plekanec, Nicolas Deslauriers

▼  David Schlemko, Byron Froese, Jakub Jerabek, Jordie Benn, Logan Shaw

1. Jonathan Drouin  MTL
2. Alex Galchenyuk  MTL
3. Jeff Petry  MTL

• “We played well defensively. I think we closed their game down quickly because they’re a dangerous team when you give them space to skate in your zone.”

Jeff Petry

• “We knew we needed to get all over them like Boston got all over us on a back-to-back (last Saturday). We kind of wore down in the second half of the Boston game, and that was our goal going into this game: to work them down low and make sure the fatigue set in for them.”

Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar

• “We had no room to move and it didn’t look like we had a bunch of jump to try and fight through some of that stuff.”
• “It looked like we were out of gas tonight. That’s what it looked like, that’s how we played. They were more determined, they were more physical, they won more battles and doubled us up in almost every category of the game.”

Quotes courtesy of NHL.com

Man! Can Lehkonen forecheck !

— Lewis&Gibby (@HabAListen) January 24, 2018

Another solid 20 from the #Habs but this time they got to the net (1st goal) and buried in close on PP (2nd). Still doing well on faceoffs/cycle/cutting time & space. Must continue against a dangerous team @AllHabs @HabsUnfiltered #GoHabsGo

— Blain Potvin (@Potsy_70) January 24, 2018

Game preview #Habs vs #Avalanche

The #Canadiens will face the red-hot #Avs who have won their last 10 games, and unlike the bleu-blanc-rouge they don't have trouble to score.

The shot conversion ratio chart here shows you how much both teams are on the opposite. @AllHabs pic.twitter.com/WrULLQKc78

— Mathieu CHagnon (@Mat_CH) January 23, 2018

Follow @AllHabs on Twitter