Canadiens Lineup

Jonathan Drouin – Nick Suzuki –  Joel Armia

Tomas Tatar – Phillip Danault – Brendan Gallagher

Tyler Toffoli – Jesperi Kotkaniemi – Josh Anderson

Paul Byron – Jake Evans – Corey Perry

Ben Chiarot – Shea Weber

Joel Edmundson – Jeff Petry

Brett Kulak – Alexander Romanov

Carey Price – Jake Allen

Victor Mete, Artturi Lehkonen

Cam Hillis, Hayden Verbeek, Michael Frolik, Charlie Lindgren

Game Report

Well, well, well. All that was needed was Laval goalie coach Marco Marciano to get the recall nod to the Canadiens. Unfortunately, that has essentially been the level of the conversation this past week coming from the folks in the mainstream media.

The truth is that the Canadiens have had many more serious concerns beyond the blue paint. Marc Bergevin, Stephane Waite and Dominique Ducharme are in full agreement about that.

Tonight, the Habs showed that they are buying in to a new system to make much-needed improvements to their defensive game. At the same time, a return to the lineup of their go-to-the-net catalyst provided a boost to goal scoring that had gone quiet.

But, the Canadiens had a nervous start to the first period. Tape-to-tape passes weren’t working, zone exits were an adventure and their was a general disjointed feel to their game. Carey Price was called on to make two huge saves on Winnipeg snipers Paul Stastny and Pierre-Luc Dubois.

Montreal got their first power-play midway through the period with Mathieu Perreault off for hi-sticking. The Canadiens power-play did not score but created momentum for the home team.

And then Jesperi Kotkaniemi fired the puck around the boards on an in-zone dump. With Connor Hellbuyck out of his net to cut off the wrap, the puck hit a seam and right onto to the stick of Josh Anderson. It was a fitting return for Anderson after a three game injury absence. 

While the offensive outburst wouldn’t occur until the second period, the Canadiens settled down and began to better execute the game plan.

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