CANADIENS
Montreal

2-4

FLYERS
Philadelphia

Lineup

Forward lines and defense pairings: 

[one_half]Galchenyuk – Plekanec – Gallagher
Pacioretty – Desharnais – Weise
Fleischmann – Eller – Smith-Pelly
Lessio – Mitchell – Flynn[/one_half]

[one_half_last]Markov- Subban
Beaulieu – Petry
Gilbert – Barberio[/one_half_last]

Goaltenders:

Condon
Scrivens

Scratches: Greg Pateryn, Alexei Emelin, Sven Andrighetto
Injured reserve:  Carey Price, Paul Byron, Daniel Carr

Game Report

With the Canadiens season quickly slipping away after just six wins in the past two months, the coaching staff had six full days to diagnose  problems and strategize for run to the playoffs.  Michel Therrien’s solution?  Moving David Desharnais and Dale Weise to the first line with Max Pacioretty.

Despite a healthy share of icetime and a full five minutes each on the power-play (tops for Habs forwards) the so-called first line came up empty. Again. Desharnais had 90 per cent of his starts in the offensive zone.

Apparently, Therrien is completely without solutions. Post-game the coach said that the game was decided on special teams play, seemingly without connection to how his player usage is affecting the man advantage.  Therrien also said that opposing goaltenders seem very comfortable playing against them.

With the win, the Flyers have now moved ahead of the Canadiens in the East. Montreal now sits in 12th place in the conference after posting a record of 6-19-1 since December 1st.

Optimistic pundits had assured fans that the Habs would pile up the points over this 7-game soft stretch of the schedule. In four games against ‘weak’ opponents, Montreal has just one shootout win. According to Sports Club Stats, the Canadiens now have an 18.4 per cent chance of making the playoffs.

Many Habs fans are openly cheering for a further slide hoping for a top-3 draft pick to be eligible for the Auston Matthews, Patrik Laine or Jesse Puljujarvi sweepstakes.

The Canadiens return to the Bell Centre to face the Buffalo Sabres on Wednesday.

~~~

▲

▼     Tomas Fleischmann, Nathan Beaulieu, Mark Barberio, P.K. Subban, David Desharnais

1. Steve Mason  PHI
2. Wayne Simmonds  PHI
3. Jakub Voracek  PHI

• “Tonight, he difference was special teams. We got a chance to tie up the game and we had a bad read and bad execution. Pretty simple.”
• “Every goalie that we face seems really comfortable to play against us.”

Nathan Beaulieu

• “We’re just all looking for answers in here. It’s frustrating. We’re not going to give up on each other. We all care for each other and want each other to do well. But it starts right in this room, and we got to really lock ourselves in here right now.”

Flyers coach Dave Hakstol

• “We’re not going to have a lot of practice opportunities here, especially over the next month. It’s about being ready to play on game day, doing whatever that takes physically and mentally. Got to do as good a job as we can being fresh physically and allowing ourselves to be fresh mentally. This is a typical example of the type of game we’ll be involved in. Lot of energy spent. Tomorrow is a good day to recover, get ourselves ready to go and get on the road and travel.”

Quotes courtesy of NHL.com

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— Kathy K (@czechtacular) February 3, 2016

How on earth does a player who doesn't have a point on the power play in 28 straight games, lead the team in PP TOI nearly every game? #Habs

— Christopher (@CHatzitoliosMTL) February 3, 2016

#PK being told not to pinch !!!! #Habs #TravelingFan pic.twitter.com/QvDBTbpOGZ

— JDing (@GoldJerryGold) February 3, 2016

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