Canadiens Lineup

Rem Pitlick – Nick Suzuki – Denis Gurianov

Mike Hoffman – Jonathan Drouin – Josh Anderson

Harvey-Pinard – Chris Tierney – Jesse Ylonen

Michael Pezzetta – Alex Belzile – Anthony Richard

Mike Matheson – Johnathan Kovacevic

Kaiden Guhle – David Savard

Joel Edmundson – Chris Wideman

Jake Allen – Sam Montembeault

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Carey Price (knee), Paul Byron (hip), Sean Monahan (lower-body), Brendan Gallagher (lower-body), Jake Evans (lower-body), Juraj Slafkovsky (lower-body), Cole Caufield (shoulder), Arber Xhekaj (upper-body), Kirby Dach (lower-body), Joel Armia (illness), Justin Barron (upper-body), Christian Dvorak (lower-body), Jordan Harris (lower-body)

Game Report

It wasn’t so long ago that members of the Montreal media were amusing themselves in the Bell Centre press box taking turns ridiculing the play of Artturi Lehkonen. One coined a derogatory hashtag ‘almost Lehky’ and another quipped, ‘he may never score again.’ They chided the Montreal head coach for placing him higher than the fourth line.. some expressed their view that he should be a healthy scratch on a regular basis.

Since Lehkonen left the cruel, sometimes vile world of the Montreal spotlight, all he has done is hoist the scared Cup that has escaped the hands of anyone in a Canadiens jersey for almost 30 years. And he did so playing a prominent role, getting top six minutes, being deployed on special teams, creating turnovers and scoring important  goals, like the Stanley-Cup winner.

Lehkonen had also earned the respect of his former teammates who knew him as one of the smartest, most fierce competitors who never took a shift off. Brendan Gallagher and Jake Evans took time to have dinner with Lehkonen in Montreal on Sunday night.

Lehkonen may have been mocked by the local media but he had carved a place in the hearts of many Canadiens fans. And they welcomed him warmly back to the Bell Centre tonight for the first time since the trade that sent him to Colorado.  

A Productive Return

And in typical fashion, Lehkonen rose to the occasion scoring twice in the first period (reaching the 20-goal mark for the season) while adding an assist in the second before leaving the game with a broken finger. He will return to Denver for surgery.

This was a game where the Canadiens were outclassed and suffered from a lack of talent in the lineup. The Avalanche made it look easy as they ran up a 6-1 lead before taking their foot off the gas in the third period.

The Canadiens have now lost seven straight games.

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