Canadiens Lineup

Cole Caufield – Nick Suzuki – Mike Hoffman

Rem Pitlick – Christian Dvorak – Josh Anderson

Paul Byron – Jake Evans – Joel Armia

Mathieu Perreault – Laurent Dauphin – Jesse Ylonen

Alexander Romanov – David Savard

Justin Barron – Joel Edmundson

Corey Schueneman – Chris Wideman

Jake Allen – Sam Montembeault

William Lagesson

Michael Pezzetta (upper-body), Tyler Pitlick (upper-body), Jeff Petry (lower-body), Jonathan Drouin (upper-body), Ryan Poehling (upper-body), Brendan Gallagher (lower-body), Kale Clague (upper-body), Carey Price (knee), Shea Weber (multiple injuries)

Luke Richardson

Game Report

Habs fans delighted in the images of their hockey favorites frolicking in the blue-green waters of Miami. Stretching on the beach on game day is not the usual course of business for a Canadian-based hockey team but the Canadiens took full advantage of a sunny, 27C day on Tuesday.

Given the current state of NHL royalty, three-games in five days for the Canadiens against the Panthers, Hurricanes and Lightning is a little like traversing murderers’ row. So perhaps expectations weren’t very high from the outset.

But Montreal got out to an excellent start with Jesse Ylonen threading a perfect pass to Chris Wideman in the slot. The 32-year-old defenceman buried the puck past Sergei Bobrovsky for an early 1-0 lead.

Later in the period, the Habs had a chance to go up by two goals. But on the power-play, rookie defenceman Justin Barron turned the puck over leading to a Jonathan Huberdeau short-handed goal. Florida scored another 1:40 later to take a 2-1 lead into the first intermission.

The Panthers fully dominated the Canadiens for the first 16 minutes of the second period. Shots on goal were 15-1 for Florida and the home side had opened up a 4-1 lead. But in the twilight of the middle frame, Montreal scored three times in 1:42 taking advantage of some questionable goaltending.

The Panthers re-assumed control of the game in the third period limiting the visitors to just one high-danger scoring chance. The better team picked up two points in this one.

But the Canadiens deserve credit for not hanging their heads when the Panthers went up by three goals in the second period. Building a belief that they can come back against any team is an important lesson for the future.

Up Next

Jake Evans was helped off the ice after an awkward collision into the boards. Post-game, the Canadiens announced that Evans is “doing fine” but will be out day-to-day with an upper-body injury.

The Canadiens’ next stop on their road trip is a matchup with the Carolina Hurricanes in Raleigh on Thursday night.

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