Canadiens Lineup

Harvey-Pinard – Nick Suzuki – Mike Hoffman

Denis Gurianov – Jonathan Drouin – Jesse Ylonen

Sean Farrell – Jake Evans – Brendan Gallagher

Michael Pezzetta – Chris Tierney – Alex Belzile

Mike Matheson – Johnathan Kovacevic

Joel Edmundson – Justin Barron

Jordan Harris – Chris Wideman

Sam Montembeault, Jake Allen

Rem Pitlick

Carey Price (knee), Paul Byron (hip), Sean Monahan (lower-body), Juraj Slafkovsky (lower-body), Cole Caufield (shoulder), Arber Xhekaj (upper-body), Joel Armia (illness), Christian Dvorak (lower-body), Kaiden Guhle (lower-body), Josh Anderson (lower-body), Kirby Dach (upper-body), David Savard

Game Report

Apparently Sean Farrell is a follower of Wayne Gretzky philosophy, “You miss one hundred percent of the shots you don’t take.” Farrell directed a harmless shot on goal that was misplayed by Panthers goaltender Alex Lyon. It was Farrell’s first career NHL goal in just his second game after signing an entry-level contract on Sunday.

This goal was the highlight of the game for Canadiens fans, coming quite early, just 1:23 from puck drop. Celebrating the moment with Farrell were linemates Jake Evans and Brendan Gallagher.

Beyond that, Montreal failed to mount an attack, even with Lyon starting the game in shaky fashion. The Canadiens had just one high-danger scoring chance in the first period. They followed that anemic offensive performance with one more high-danger scoring chance in the second period and just two in the final frame.

By comparison, the Panthers scored four times on 20 high-danger scoring chances. And Matthew Tkachuk added an empty-net goal to complete his hat trick with 20 seconds left.

This was a rare game on the schedule when Montreal just mailed-in their performance. Many players in red appeared to have their thoughts on the off-season rather than the game at hand. Post-game, the head coach blamed physical and mental fatigue for his team’s poor showing tonight.

But Farrell provided a glimpse into the future. He earned a promotion to the top line playing with Nick Suzuki and Mike Hoffman in the third period. And the promise of what’s to come put a smile on the faces of Habs’ fans for another day.

Up Next

The Canadiens now head into the month of April with just six games remaining in their schedule. They will host the Carolina Hurricanes at the Bell Centre on Saturday night.

On Thursday, the Canadiens announced that Kirby Dach will be out for one week with an upper-body injury.

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