Canadiens Lineup

Jonathan Drouin – Phillip Danault – Brendan Gallagher

Paul Byron – Max Domi – Joel Armia

Tomas Tatar – Nick Suzuki – Artturi Lehkonen

Nick Cousins – Nate Thompson – Jordan Weal

Victor Mete – Shea Weber

Ben Chiarot – Jeff Petry

Brett Kulak – Cale Fleury

Carey Price – Keith Kinkaid

Christian Folin, Mike Reilly

Jesperi Kotkaniemi

Game Report

The Canadiens can be accused of not giving their best effort while squeaking out wins against the Kings and Blue Jackets, two teams near the bottom of the standings. A similar performance was not going to cut it going against the top team in the NHL.

To their credit, the Habs had one of their best road games of the season against the Capitals.

But it could have turned out quite differently. Claude Julien noted that the Capitals had multiple, high-quality scoring chances in the first minutes of the game. But Carey Price turned away every Washington chance, thereby setting the tone for this the game.

Price, being in the zone, boosted the confidence of his teammates. The Habs skaters played the Capitals tight, and in the process created turnovers. Montreal then used their speed in transition and took advantage of some shaky Washington goaltending. 

Post-game, Capitals head coach, Todd Reirden said that his team wasn’t sharp and didn’t play their game. That may be true, but stick taps to Montreal for taking advantage of their opportunity against an extremely good hockey club. 

Nick Suzuki is becoming increasingly comfortable at centre and has been very effective. In addition to his goal tonight, Suzuki led the team at the faceoff dot with a 71 per cent success rate. Suzuki had one of the best games of his short professional career.

In the ‘flying under the radar’ category, Artturi Lehkonen was tops on the Habs with a brilliant 72.73 Corsi for percentage. Lehkonen was extremely effective creating opportunities for his teammates and limiting scoring chances of the Capitals.

The Canadiens will host the Devils on Saturday night at the Bell Centre.  

Plus / Minus

▲  Carey Price, Shea Weber, Tomas Tatar, Phillip Danault, Nick Suzuki, Artturi Lehkonen

▼  Paul Byron, Victor Mete, Max Domi