Canadiens Lineup

Jonathan Drouin – Nick Suzuki – Josh Anderson

Tyler Toffoli – Jesperi Kotkaniemi – Brendan Gallagher

Tomas Tatar – Phillip Danault – Joel Armia

Paul Byron – Jake Evans – Corey Perry

Alexander Romanov – Shea Weber

Joel Edmundson – Jeff Petry

Brett Kulak – Victor Mete

 Jake Allen – Carey Price

Artturi Lehkonen

Xavier Ouellet, Laurent Dauphin, Michael Frolik, Charlie Lindgren

Ben Chiarot

Game Report

It’s easy to dismiss this game as unwinnable given the circumstances. The Canadiens arrived late in Calgary after an 11 pm. ET start in Vancouver on Wednesday night. The team was fatigued. How could they be expected to win?

But the cold reality of this NHL season with a compressed schedule is that there are no asterisks beside any match. All teams have challenges dictated by the schedule and travel. And there are no excuses permitted.

Despite the quick turnaround, despite the fact that the Flames were playing for a new coach, this was a winnable game. Coming into the game tonight, the Flames had won just three in their past ten contests. And over the course of the past 10 days, they had lost three times to the Ottawa Senators.

Sadly, the Canadiens were beaten by the Flames fourth line tonight, with Josh Leivo getting his second and third goals of the season. And even after a weak effort on the night, Montreal found themselves on a power-play in the third period trailing by just one goal, but could not muster the effort to score.

A very busy schedule for the Canadiens continues for the next seven weeks. They must find a way to cope. It was odd to see that the interim head coach chose to make Artturi Lehkonen a healthy scratch for the third straight game when fresh legs may have made a difference.

Up Next

Plus

Minus

Game Preview