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Canadiens @ Senators: Looking For Answers | HABS RECAP

Rick Stephens

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

FINAL/OT | Game 17, Away Game 9 | Sunday February 21, 2021
Canadian Tire Centre, Ottawa, ON

CANADIENS

Montreal

2-3

SENATORS

Ottawa
(Photo by Andre Ringuette/NHLI via Getty Images)

Canadiens Lineup

Forward lines

Jonathan Drouin – Nick Suzuki – Josh Anderson

Tyler Toffoli – Phillip Danault – Brendan Gallagher

 Tomas Tatar – Jesperi Kotkaniemi – Joel Armia

Paul Byron – Jake Evans – Corey Perry

Defence pairings

Ben Chiarot – Shea Weber

Joel Edmundson – Jeff Petry

Victor Mete – Alexander Romanov

Goaltenders

Carey Price – Jake Allen

Scratches

Brett Kulak, Artturi Lehkonen

Taxi Squad

Cale Fleury, Hayden Verbeek, Michael Frolik, Charlie Lindgren

Injuries

None 

Game Report

After a week of practice under the guidance of Claude Julien, the Canadiens finished their weekend series without a win. A loss against the best team in the NHL may be understandable. But another loss against the worst team in the league should trigger some questions. 

But let’s dig a little deeper. The Canadiens have lost five of their last seven games. As bad as that sounds, it could have been worse. The two lowly wins were anything but convincing.

A little more than two weeks ago, Montreal registered a 2-1 decision over Ottawa in a game they had no business winning. And a week ago, they were very fortunate to ride the performance of Carey Price to a win over the Leafs.

In fact, the Canadiens haven’t played well since the first and second of February with two wins over Vancouver.

Tonight’s game featured one team with AHL quality talent against a team playing at an AHL level. The result was a snooze-fest. 

While Jake Allen made three strong saves in overtime, he wasn’t tested in regulation time. Allen made just three high-danger saves in the first 60 minutes of the game.

And for their part, the Canadiens weren’t a threat to score generating just one high-danger scoring chance for the first 54 minutes of the game. 

Something is wrong with this team. Montreal started the season forcing teams to make mistakes. Now, it’s the Habs who are making high-risk decisions which is resulting in few quality scoring opportunities and a raft of mistakes.

And the coaching staff don’t seem to have answers that the players are adopting presently.

Up Next

The road trip continues for Habs as they will face the Senators again on Tuesday night before heading to Winnipeg for a pair of games.

Plus / Minus

▲ Jake Allen, Joel Armia, Jesperi Kotkaniemi, Jeff Petry, Corey Perry

▼ Victor Mete, Tomas Tatar, Alexander Romanov, Jake Evans

Game Preview

If you missed the game preview, you can find it here: Canadiens @ Senators: Looking to Rebound

The Numbers

Game Statistics
CANADIENS   SENATORS
32 Shots 39
45 Face-off % 55
0-for-3 Power Play 0-for-4
10 Penalty Minutes 8
25 Hits 27
52 Corsi For 33
Scoring Summary
FINAL 1 2 3 OT SO T
Canadiens (9-5-3) 1 0 1 0 – 2
Senators (5-14-1) 1 0 1 1 – 3
Scorers Goalies
  • MTL: Suzuki (4), Perry (2)
  • OTT: Batherson (4), Norris (4), Tkachuk (6)
  • MTL: Allen (OTL) 4-2-1
  • OTT: Murray (W) 3-9-1

Stars of the Game

Official NHL Three Stars
  1. Brady Tkachuk  OTT
  2. Drake Batherson  OTT
  3. Connor Brown  OTT

Watch

Video Highlights

What Did They Say?

Post-game Quotes

Claude Julien

  • “We never took anything for granted, even with a good start to the season. We knew that it would be tough because of the condensed schedule. There are highs and lows during a season. We have to find a way to manage this situation. Obviously, there’s frustration. The majority of our players are bringing good efforts, but we have to make better decisions.”
  • “Lately what we’re doing is we’re pressing and because we’re pressing we’re making some high-risk decisions and those are becoming costly.”

Nick Suzuki

  • “I think we’re pretty much all up in our own heads right now. I think we’re just overthinking it, playing not to lose, and that’s never a good thing to do. At the start of the season, we were really energized and everyone was having fun. That got away from us.”

Jeff Petry

  • “We just have to limit our mistakes, limit the turnovers. It’s all about us. We sometimes give them more than they deserve. That’s about taking care of the puck in the right situations and knowing what’s on the clock. We’ll fix it and we’ll move forward.”

Quotes courtesy of NHL.com

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