CANADIENS
Montreal

0-1

SENATORS
Ottawa

Game Report

With a chance to close out the Senators in Ottawa on Wednesday night, the Canadiens came up with a lacklustre effort.  While Michel Therrien preaches to his troops to play a patient game, it is the Stanley Cup playoffs and the Habs needed better than listless effort they showed.  It was one of the most undemanding shutouts of Craig Anderson’s career.

Perhaps the Canadiens were still in spa mode.

For some, what was even more disturbing than the ‘ho-hum’ approach that the Habs displayed during the game was the ‘oh well’ attitude afterwards.  Coach Therrien seemed awfully confident that Bell Centre fans would deliver the team a series win on Friday but failed to acknowledge that there is another team involved.  And they now have more than just hope.

The Senators altered their game plan coming into Game 4.  Dave Cameron was pleased with the physical effort of his team in the first three games but realized that in sometimes chasing a hit, they were vulnerable to the quick strike Canadiens offense.  So the Ottawa coach dialed back the forecheck; just 12 hits by the Sens in the first period compared with 27 in Game 3.  This should have presented an opportunity for Therrien to counter with a breakout adjustment but it didn’t happen.

The Sens played a cautious first period.  A weak Montreal power-play handed the Senators momentum. And the Ottawa offense that showed sporadic signs of life early in the second period revved up to end the frame.

Ottawa pressed hard to begin the third period and were rewarded with about 11 minutes left. Following their goal, the Senators played with a confidence that we had yet to see in the series. The Canadiens showed no urgency even after going down a goal.

Once again, Carey Price outplayed his Ottawa counterpart, in this game, by a wide margin.

Where were the Canadiens top-6 forwards?  Where was the power-play (now 1-for-16 in the series)?  Where were the coaching adjustments?  And where was the focus, intensity and urgency?

Against Craig Anderson, a 33-year-old goaltender with a 14-13-8 regular season record, the Canadiens have scored just two goals. Both by Dale Weise.  That’s not complimentary to the goaltending of Anderson but just how anemic the Canadiens have played.

Greg Pateryn didn’t play the third period and just 7:48 in the game but had five hits. Dale Weise had six hits. Add up the hits by Devante Smith-Pelly PLUS the entire fourth line (Brandon Prust, Torrey Mitchell and Brian Flynn) and it equals ONE. No energy from the energy players.

The Canadiens employed the ‘let Carey Price take care of it’ strategy and it didn’t work. Hopefully Michel Therrien will put some effort into the game plan for Game 5.

▲     Carey Price, Alexei Emelin, Dale Weise, Tomas Plekanec, Lars Eller

▼     Brandon Prust, Devante Smith-Pelly, David Desharnais, Brendan Gallagher, Torrey Mitchell, Jacob de la Rose, Tom Gilbert, Alex Galchenyuk, Brian Flynn

1.  Craig Anderson  OTT
2.  Mike Hofffman  OTT
3.  Carey Price  MTL

• “We’re disappointed any time we lose a game. When the series shifted to Ottawa, we came in focused on getting the first win, and then were even hungrier for the second. As a whole though, winning one out of two in a tough building is still a good result. The good news is now we’ll go back home and have the energy of our crowd behind us. We’re all excited for Friday.”

Brandon Prust

• “You know, we’re still in the driver’s seat and we still have to look at it that way. Next game we’ve got to get back to playing a full three periods, get our legs moving. We stopped moving our legs there in the third and I think it cost us.”
• “We had our chances and they had theirs, but we didn’t play our best hockey in the third. We kind of went flat and were on our heels the whole time. We’ve got to learn from that and make sure we come out playing a full 60 in Montreal.”

Max Pacioretty

• “It’s just another one-goal game, but this one happened to go their way. It wasn’t much different from the others. They’re a strong hockey team, and you can’t win every game against a team like that. We didn’t show our best in the third when we had a chance to close it out. They played a good game and so did their goalie – you’ve got to give him credit as well.”
• “I wanted to wrap it up tonight and not give them any life, but they got a bounce there. We’ve got to have that killer instinct next game because they’ve got a gutsy group that’s going to battle hard until the very end.”

Carey Price

• “We’re comfortable playing in these types of games, but we didn’t generate the chances we wanted to tonight. They played desperate hockey. They really stifled us this time. (Craig) Anderson played well. You can’t be too hard on yourself in a game like that. Now we just need to find a way to score and get it done at home.”

Senators forward Mark Stone

• “We’re just looking to fight another day. It’s great. We know if we have one hiccup our season is over. We’re confident, comfortable, and just trying to take it step by step.”

Senators defenseman Erik Karlsson

• “I still don’t think it was the best game we played in the series. We found a way to win and that’s what’s important. We live to see another day.”
• “I think this has been a great run we’ve been on. We’ve had a lot of fun with this group and we have a great group of guys. We’re enjoying this. We worked really hard to get to where we are today. We’re not going to go down without a fight.”

Senators forward Mike Hoffman

• “We needed to get bodies in the way of (Carey) Price because he’s one of the best goalies in the world. Mika (Zibanejad) did a great job of screening him there and it made it easy on me.”
• “Great play by [Mika Zibanejad]. He might not have got an assist on the play, but if he wasn’t in front of (Carey) Price there, he probably would have saved it. Hard work by him and a big reason why it went in.”

Senators goalie Craig Anderson

• “We have a hard road to travel and there’s no reason why we can’t be in the next game also. We’ve been in all four games now. We’ve been right there. They’ve all been one-goal games. We just need to make sure we’re ready to go and bring it all again.”

Senators coach Dave Cameron

• “I thought [Mike Hoffman] was very responsible the game before away from the puck. And then he was responsible at the start of tonight’s game … so you put him there and he rewards you.”