Power Outage | RECAP: CHI @ MTL

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Rick Stephens
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Cole Caufield (Photo by Francois Lacasse/NHLI via Getty Images)

Montreal Canadiens vs Chicago Blackhawks, Game Recap: Habs, Line-up, Score, Statistics, Highlights, Post-game, Interviews, NHL, Three-Stars

FINAL | Game 28, Home Game 15 | Thursday December 9, 2021
Bell Centre, Montreal, QC

CANADIENS

Montreal

0-2

 Chicago Blackhawks logo

BLACKHAWKS

Chicago
Cole Caufield (Photo by Francois Lacasse/NHLI via Getty Images)

Canadiens Lineup

Forward lines

Mike Hoffman – Nick Suzuki – Jonathan Drouin

Artturi Lehkonen – Ryan Poehling – Jake Evans

Mathieu Perreault – Laurent Dauphin – Cole Caufield

Michael Pezzetta – Cedric Paquette – Jesse Ylonen

Defence pairings

Ben Chiarot – David Savard

Alexander Romanov – Chris Wideman

Brett Kulak – Kale Clague

Goaltenders

Jake Allen – Sam Montembeault

Scratches

Corey Schueneman

Injuries

Christian Dvorak (lower-body), Joel Armia (undisclosed), Tyler Toffoli (upper-body), Jeff Petry (upper-body), Josh Anderson (upper-body), Joel Edmundson (back), Carey Price (knee), Paul Byron (hip), Shea Weber (multiple injuries)

COVID-19 protocol

Brendan Gallagher, Sami Niku

Game Report

Two Original-Six teams faced off against each other at the Bell Centre but this was far from a classic matchup. The Canadiens failed to score and that had precious little to do with the veteran in the visitors goal. 

Montreal had one high danger scoring chance (5-vs-5) in the second period and one in the third period. Just two high danger chances in the entire game. TWO. The 69th shutout of Marc-Andre Fleury’s career was likely one of his easiest.

There were not many highlights for the Habs in this game but fans should be enjoying the play of Ryan Poehling. The 22-year-old has handled every assignment handed to him. Tonight Poehling didn’t look out of place as the Canadiens second-line centre. 

Beyond that there really wasn’t much of note. Sure the Nick Suzuki line had some offensive zone time but they did not create scoring opportunities despite the possession time.

Given the low event play of the Canadiens, the Bell Centre crowd turned to toasting Hawks and former Hawks.

Andrew Shaw received an ovation from Habs fans seated with his family. Bringing Shaw to Montreal was Marc Bergevin’s second worst trade. Half of the return is now Chicago’s top scorer, Alex DeBrincat, who has 14 goals this season.

And as the game came to a merciful close, the chants of ‘Fleury’ filled the arena with the 37-year-old recording the 500th win of his career. It was the same Marc-Andre Fleury that the Canadiens chased from the third round of the Stanley Cup playoffs in June.

Up Next

The Canadiens travel to St. Louis to face the Blues on Saturday night.

Plus

▲  Mike Hoffman, Artturi Lehkonen, Ryan Poehling

Minus

▼  Laurent Dauphin, Brett Kulak, Michael Pezzetta, Mathieu Perreault, Kale Clague, Cedric Paquette, Cole Caufield, David Savard

Game Preview

Check out the game preview here: Ylonen Gets A Look | PREVIEW: CHI @ MTL

The Numbers

Game Statistics
CANADIENS   BLACKHAWKS
30 Shots 25
54 Face-off % 47
0-for-1 Power Play 1-for-2
4 Penalty Minutes 2
23 Hits 24
39 Corsi For 39
Scoring Summary
FINAL 1 2 3 OT SO T
Canadiens (6-19-3) 0 0 0 – – 0
Blackhawks (10-14-2) 0 1 1 – – 2
Scorers Goalies
  • MTL: no scoring
  • CHI: Toews (1)-PPG, Borgstrom (2)
  • MTL: Allen (L) (5-13-2)
  • CHI: Fleury (W) (8-10-0)

Stars of the Game

Official NHL Three Stars
NHL3stars
  1. Marc-Andre Fleury  CHI
  2. Jake Allen  MTL
  3. Jonathan Toews  CHI

Watch

Video Highlights

What Did They Say?

Post-game Quotes

Dominique Ducharme

  • “Five-on-five, it was a pretty even game. They scored a power-play goal and one mistake with eight minutes to go cost us. We did some good things, but we want to generate more offensively. Defensively, we were pretty sound, we didn’t give up much.”
  • “We have to concentrate on the way we play. If you look at the last three games, you can’t say we quit on games, that we didn’t show up. We’re going to stick with that and control what we can do every day. Down inside. everyone is a competitor.”

Brett Kulak

  • “There are a lot of things that we are doing better, where we’ve improved and are giving ourselves chances to win. The important thing now is to continue building on our strengths.”

Jesse Ylonen

  • “My experience last year allowed me to see the speed of the game in the NHL and the level of competition. I was a little more comfortable this time around.”

Quotes courtesy of NHL.com

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