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Canadiens @ Flames: Listless Start | HABS RECAP

Rick Stephens

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

FINAL | Game 27, Away Game 16 | Saturday March 13, 2021
Scotiabank Saddledome, Calgary, AB

CANADIENS

Montreal

1-3

FLAMES

Calgary
Nick Suzuki (Photo by Gerry Thomas/NHLI via Getty Images)

Canadiens Lineup

Forward lines

Jonathan Drouin – Nick Suzuki – Josh Anderson

Tyler Toffoli – Jesperi Kotkaniemi – Brendan Gallagher

Tomas Tatar – Phillip Danault – Joel Armia

Artturi Lehkonen – Paul Byron – Corey Perry

Defence pairings

Alexander Romanov – Shea Weber

Joel Edmundson – Jeff Petry

Brett Kulak – Victor Mete

Goaltenders

 Carey Price – Jake Allen

Scratches

Jake Evans

Taxi Squad

Xavier Ouellet, Laurent Dauphin, Michael Frolik, Charlie Lindgren

Injuries

Ben Chiarot (hand)

Game Report

Blame it on fatigue was the mantra everywhere on Thursday night following the loss to Calgary. Well, everywhere but in this space.

We told you that the Canadiens had issues beyond those that could be explained by a sleep-deprived team. With a day off on Friday and no game day skate on Saturday, the Habs should have come out flying against Calgary tonight. They didn’t.

A few short weeks ago, Marc Bergevin brought up the injury issue, saying that he couldn’t understand why his team was struggling when they hadn’t had any injuries. Well all that has changed rather quickly with the fractured hand of Ben Chiarot. The Canadiens defenceman will be re-evaluated on Monday and could miss four to six weeks.

While Bergevin improved his team’s depth in the off-season, the blueline was already thin before Chiarot’s injury. Victor Mete is no more than a temporary fix. Bergevin will be tasked with the responsibility of adding a defenceman who can play big minutes.

And while the general manager is shopping, he will want to keep a sharp eye out for a centre who can win faceoffs. Phillip Danault has been struggling on both sides of the puck all season. After sustaining an injury, Danault was doing nothing more than going through the motions tonight. 

Against a beatable team with a new coach, the Canadiens were not skating, were not managing the puck well and were not making smart decisions. Defensively, they were back to their porous ways and they did not have any solutions to the Calgary offence which came in waves.

High-danger scoring chances were 12-2 for Calgary after 40 minutes. Carey Price did everything he could do to keep his team in the game. His teammates were unable to respond.

Up Next

It’s mid-season for the league and the trade deadline is right around the corner. This team must decide if it will make a push to meet its expectations. If so, it appears that they will need some help.

The Canadiens will head to Winnipeg where they will play the last two games of the road trip starting on Monday night.

Plus

▲ Carey Price, Shea Weber, Alexander Romanov, Tyler Toffoli

Minus

▼ Brett Kulak, Victor Mete, Jonathan Drouin, Jeff Petry, Nick Suzuki, Phillip Danault, Joel Armia, Corey Perry

Game Preview

Check out the game preview here: Canadiens @ Flames: A Rested Rematch

The Numbers

Game Statistics
CANADIENS   FLAMES
25 Shots 36
50 Face-off % 50
0-for-2 Power Play 1-for-3
6 Penalty Minutes 4
23 Hits 16
34 Corsi For 48
Scoring Summary
FINAL 1 2 3 OT SO T
Canadiens (12-8-7) 0 1 0 – – 1
Flames (13-12-3) 2 1 0 – – 3
Scorers Goalies
  • MTL: Petry (11)
  • CGY: Monahan (6), Monahan (7)-PPG, Backlund (5)
  • MTL: Price (L) 8-5-4
  • CGY: Markstrom (W) 10-7-2

Stars of the Game

Official NHL Three Stars
  1. Sean Monahan  CGY
  2. Matthew Tkachuk  CGY
  3. Dillon Dube  CGY

Watch

Video Highlights

What Did They Say?

Post-game Quotes

Dominique Ducharme

  • “There’s no reason to have a start like that. I felt that our guys were ready, but we weren’t moving when we hit the ice. When you aren’t moving your feet, you can’t execute and you can’t be in the right spots. You also can’t take away time and space from the other team. We weren’t moving our legs. It was better in the second half of the game, but we’re capable of doing a lot better.”

Nick Suzuki

  • “We have to find a way to be better at the start. We had good energy coming to the rink. Guys were excited. Once the puck dropped, we were sitting back. They dominated us in the first period pretty well. If it wasn’t for Carey (Price), it could’ve been a lot worse. But as the game went on, I thought we did a good job of responding. Starting off with a bad 30 minutes, though, is going to cost you.”

Jeff Petry

  • “There’s no excuse for the way we played in the first and a good chunk of the second. We should’ve been rested. We didn’t practice Friday and we didn’t have a morning skate. There’s no excuse. They were coming hard and we were slow.”
  • “They come hard. They play fast all over the ice. If you look at their game, when they don’t have anything, it’s a well-placed dump and they’re right on top of us. Our struggle was our support. We kind of left guys hanging, whether you left your partner hanging when he’s back for the puck, we were slow to support and get in position to break the puck out. We should’ve known that was coming based on our last game against them. They were skating all over and we didn’t do a good job supporting each other. We spent a lot more time in our defensive zone than we should’ve.”

Quotes courtesy of NHL.com

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