Canadiens Lineup

Cole Caufield – Nick Suzuki – Kirby Dach

Mike Hoffman – Christian Dvorak – Brendan Gallagher

Evgenii Dadonov – Sean Monahan – Josh Anderson

Michael Pezzetta – Jake Evans – Juraj Slafkovsky

Kaiden Guhle – David Savard

Joel Edmundson – Arber Xhekaj

Jordan Harris – Johnathan Kovacevic

Sam Montembeault – Jake Allen

Chris Wideman, Rem Pitlick

Carey Price (knee), Paul Byron (hip), Emil Heineman (finger), Mike Matheson (abdominal strain), Joel Armia (upper-body), Jonathan Drouin (upper-body)

Game Report

The home team tonight was well behind the Canadiens in the standings sitting in 31st place. The Blue Jackets were also missing eight regulars from their lineup due to injury. Ripe for the picking, you say?

Unfortunately, Montreal was unable to take advantage of the strong hand that they were dealt. Facing the worst team in the Eastern Conference, Habs fans were ‘treated’ to turnovers, missed coverages, lost faceoffs, weak goaltending and yielding multiple breakaways leading to scoring chances.

In a sloppily-played affair, the mistakes led to six cannon blasts tonight, much to the delight of the home crowd at Nationwide Arena.

At the same time, Montreal was creating its own magic at times with memorable goals from Jordan Harris, Josh Anderson, Brendan Gallagher and Nick Suzuki. Juraj Slafkovsky tallied the first assist of his career. And Arber Xhekaj had a spirited bout with Mathieu Olivier.

Post-game, players in the Canadiens dressing room spoke about the mistake of taking the Blue Jackets too lightly. It was a lesson that apparently needed to be learned by veterans and young players alike.

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