Canadiens Lineup

Tyler Toffoli – Nick Suzuki – Corey Perry

Jonathan Drouin – Eric Staal – Josh Anderson

Tomas Tatar – Phillip Danault – Jesperi Kotkaniemi

Paul Byron – Jake Evans – Artturi Lehkonen

Joel Edmundson – Shea Weber

Brett Kulak – Jeff Petry

Alexander Romanov – Otto Leskinen

Jake Allen – Cayden Primeau

Victor Mete

Brandon Baddock, Michael Frolik, Michael McNiven

Ben Chiarot (hand), Brendan Gallagher (hand), Carey Price (lower-body), Joel Armia (COVID protocol)

Game Report

Take a stroll through comments from Habs fans on social media. On second thought, don’t! It’s ugly out there.

Canadiens fans are angry and they have every right to be. They have a general manager who is in panic mode, and by reports of former employees, is quite fearful for his own job. It’s not the best mindset for making sound hockey decisions. 

Four years ago, Marc Bergevin created a crater in his lineup on defence and to date, has done nothing to fill it adequately. While Habs fans patiently wait for that first-pairing puck-moving defenceman, Bergevin decided to go against the flow of the NHL and add another d-man who is slow and physical in this past off-season, a lesser clone of something he already owned.

Montreal has had a problem on defence since January 13th. It was masked by an offensive outburst in the month for January. But since then, the warts have been evident. And since the injury to Ben Chiarot, the GM’s flawed design and his inability to add depth has caused a decent team to look much worse than it is.

Add to that, a replacement behind the bench without any experience as a pro head coach, who is making one rookie mistake after another and you have a team that doesn’t look like it belongs in the post-season.

There is a feeling that Bergevin must act to refloat a sinking ship. But, it’s fair to ask, is the GM capable of making a smart hockey trade as the deadline approaches if he is so focused on preserving his own hide?

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