Canadiens Lineup

Cole Caufield – Nick Suzuki – Josh Anderson

Sean Monahan – Kirby Dach – Evgenii Dadonov

Juraj Slafkovsky – Christian Dvorak – Brendan Gallagher

Jonathan Drouin  – Jake Evans – Mike Hoffman

Kaiden Guhle – David Savard

Arber Xhekaj – Chris Wideman

Jordan Harris – Johnathan Kovacevic

Sam Montembeault – Jake Allen

Rem Pitlick, Michael Pezzetta, Corey Schueneman

Carey Price (knee), Paul Byron (hip), Joel Edmundson (back), Logan Mailloux (shoulder), Emil Heineman (finger), Mike Matheson (abdominal strain), Joel Armia (upper-body)

Game Report

The Canadiens inability to generate offense; we talked about it on the Canadiens Connection podcast. The book is out on how to derail a Marty St. Louis coached team.

After a rather evenly-played first period, the Canadiens ability to create opportunities in the offensive zone simply dried up. Montreal had just ONE high-danger scoring chance in the final 40 minutes of the game. Something missing from the head coach’s toolkit is the ability to make in-game adjustments.

But what of the positives to take from this game?

Nick Suzuki scored his first goal of the season and his first as captain of the Canadiens. Assisting on the goal was Arber Xhekaj, his first point in the NHL.

When Anthony Mantha knocked Kaiden Guhle’s helmet off with a sneaky elbow, the 20-year-old defenceman took on the bigger Capitals forward earning himself his first fighting major. Guhle showed no ill effects from an apparent injury in the first period of Friday’s game, playing 20:29 against Washington.

On faceoffs, Jake Evans (73%), Sean Monahan (69%) and Kirby Dach (63%) were each over 60 percent at the dot.

Time to Close the Book

Lastly, let’s consider the sad state of Jonathan Drouin. After a truly underwhelming training camp and two games as a healthy scratch, Drouin didn’t blacken the scoresheet in any way in 15:16 of ice-time, including 2:12 on the power-play. No shots on goal, no hits, no blocked shots. Nothing. 

Drouin looks disinterested in being part of this team. He hasn’t given Marty St Louis any reason to keep him in the lineup. And Drouin is not doing Kent Hughes any favors in crafting a trade for him out of Montreal.

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