Canadiens Lineup

Jonathan Drouin – Nick Suzuki – Josh Anderson

Tomas Tatar – Phillip Danault – Brendan Gallagher

Paul Byron – Jesperi Kotkaniemi – Artturi Lehkonen

Michael Frolik – Jake Evans – Corey Perry

Joel Edmundson – Shea Weber

Brett Kulak – Jeff Petry

Alexander Romanov – Victor Mete

Jake Allen – Carey Price

Laurent Dauphin, Gustav Olofsson, Xavier Ouellet, Charlie Lindgren

Ben Chiarot (hand), Tyler Toffoli (lower-body), Joel Armia (COVID protocol)

Game Report

After such a strong game on Tuesday night following a lengthy layoff, it was incumbent on the Canadiens to come out strong against the Senators to continue their positive momentum. It’s the type of challenge that has proved difficult for the Habs this season. But tonight, with a full team effort, Montreal did exactly what they needed to do: play the perfect road game.

For the Canadiens, their focus was on the defensive part of the game. The Senators failed to generate many quality chances as Montreal owned their own zone. Most of Ottawa’s 23 shots came from the perimeter yielding a yawner of a game.

It was a team effort to secure the victory for Jake Allen. The Canadiens backup had lost six straight starts. It was Allen’s first win in almost two months, his last “W” dating back to February 6th.

With Eric Staal counting the days until his quarantine expires, Jake Evans is hoping to make Dominique Ducharme’s lineup decisions a little more difficult. Evans had two primary assists on goals by Paul Byron and Corey Perry. The setup on Byron’s goal by Evans was a thing of beauty.

All season long Jonathan Drouin has been praised like the second coming of Nathan MacKinnon. Part of that is due to low expectations set by Drouin’s dreadful performance last season. Drouin has been blessed with top-6 minutes all year including power-play time. 

And given the opportunities, Drouin has benefited from his teammates scoring with 19 assists to lead the team. But Drouin has just four power-play points this season. And Drouin’s two goals are tied with Joel Edmundson. 

While widely acknowledged as the teacher’s pet, Drouin must do much more to earn the ice-time generously generously doled out to him by Ducharme.

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