Golden Knights @ Canadiens: Fail to Finish | HABS GAME 4 RECAP

By
Rick Stephens
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1
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Eric Staal (Photo by Francois Lacasse/NHLI via Getty Images)

Montreal Canadiens vs Vegas Golden Knights Recap: Habs Line-up, Score, Statistics, Highlights, Post-game Interviews, NHL Three-Stars

FINAL/OT | Round 3, Game 4 | Sunday June 20, 2021

Series tied 2-2
Bell Centre, Montreal, QC

CANADIENS

Montreal

1-2

 Vegas Golden Knights logo

GOLDEN KNIGHTS

Vegas
Eric Staal (Photo by Francois Lacasse/NHLI via Getty Images)

Canadiens Lineup

Forward lines

Tyler Toffoli – Nick Suzuki – Cole Caufield

Artturi Lehkonen – Phillip Danault – Brendan Gallagher

Paul Byron – Jesperi Kotkaniemi – Josh Anderson

Joel Armia – Eric Staal – Corey Perry

Defence pairings

Ben Chiarot – Shea Weber

Joel Edmundson – Jeff Petry

Erik Gustafsson – Jon Merrill

Goaltenders

Carey Price – Jake Allen

Scratches

Tomas Tatar, Michael Frolik, Charlie Lindgren, Brett Kulak, Alexander Romanov

Black Aces

Alex Belzile, Laurent Dauphin, Lukas Vejdemo, Jesse Ylonen, Cale Fleury, Otto Leskinen, Xavier Ouellet, Cayden Primeau, Michael McNiven

Injuries

Jonathan Drouin (undisclosed), Jake Evans (concussion)

COVID protocol

Dominique Ducharme

Game Report

The Canadiens have to be happy with the way they played game 4, particularly on the defensive side, for the vast majority of the game. This followed a weak game 3 performance where the Golden Knights dominated play for 40 minutes. But there were a lot of positives to take away from the Sunday night contest.

The frustrating part for Montreal is that they played well but came away without a victory. How much better can they play?

A 3-1 series lead going back to Nevada would have energized the Habs. And now we have a best of three series with potentially two of the games taking place in Las Vegas where line matching and changes will be tougher for the Habs. 

There are no moral victories, this is a results oriented business. The Canadiens have to find additional ways to generate a win starting with creating more second and third chance scoring opportunities. Too often, it has been one-and-done in the playoffs in the offensive zone.

Officiating is atrocious

Officiating isn’t a topic that we typically address in this column, but given the degree of its incompetence for the past two games, it has rightly earned a mention. It was obvious to fans of many stripes, to broadcasters and analysts and to former players that the officials blatantly impacted the outcome of the game tonight. 

After the debacle of game 3, Gary Bettman (who attended the game) had no choice but to replace referees Chris Lee and Dan O’Rourke for game 4. Rather than protect the integrity of the game, Lee and O’Rourke were allowed to do an even worse job in Sunday night’s game. Whether it’s a matter of incompetence or corruption, the NHL has a serious problem.

It’s is astonishing that Lee and O’Rourke are considered, by the league, two of the best referees in the NHL and worthy of officiating a Stanley Cup semi-final playoff game.

Up Next

Game 4 was a huge missed opportunity for the Canadiens. The two teams will head to Las Vegas to play game 5 on Tuesday night at T-Mobile Arena.

Plus

▲  Carey Price, Shea Weber, Ben Chiarot, Paul Byron, Corey Perry, Nick Suzuki, Jeff Petry, Joel Armia, Artturi Lehkonen

Minus

▼  Erik Gustafsson, Jon Merrill, Joel Edmundson

Game Preview

Check out the game preview here: Golden Knights @ Canadiens: ‘Go Through A Wall For Luke’ | HABS GAME 4 PREVIEW

The Numbers

Game Statistics
CANADIENS   GOLDEN KNIGHTS
28 Shots 21
44 Face-off % 56
0-for-1 Power Play 0-for-1
4 Penalty Minutes 4
40 Hits 24
51 Corsi For 47
Scoring Summary
FINAL 1 2 3 OT SO T
Canadiens (10-5) 0 1 0 0 – 1
Golden Knights (10-7) 0 0 1 1 – 2
Scorers Goalies
  • MTL: Byron (3)
  • VGK: McNabb (1), Roy (4)
  • MTL: Price (OTL) 10-5
  • VGK: Lehner (W) 1-1 

Stars of the Game

Official NHL Three Stars
NHL3stars
  1. Nicolas Roy  VGK
  2. Robin Lehner  VGK
  3. Paul Byron  MTL

Watch

Video Highlights

What Did They Say?

Post-game Quotes

Luke Richardson

  • “I feel bad for the players. They put a lot of effort in. We really played the right way. We played really hard. We had a few chances to maybe make it 2-0 or 2-1, and we just couldn’t capitalize. But, the effort was there, both defensively and in terms of creating some offense. I thought we carried the play most of the night, so we’re pretty happy with that. We’re confident with the way we’re playing. It is a little disappointing anytime you lose in overtime.”

Josh Anderson

  • “I think we can take a lot of positives out of it. We started the right way. I thought we played the right way tonight. Both goaltenders played a great game, and they just got that bounce at the end there.”

Joel Edmundson

  • “I thought we played a good game. We just need to find a way to score more goals. Overall, it was a good game. We didn’t really give them too much, and when we did, Carey (Price) was there to stop it.”

Paul Byron

  • “We played a better game tonight. We skated and won our battles. We spent a lot of time in the offensive zone. There are a lot of things we can improve. We’re getting better every day. We know that the Golden Knights want to do the same thing. The small details are so important every game.”

Quotes courtesy of NHL.com

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1 COMMENT

  1. salut-bien chers amis allhabs,
    tough-one last nite eh
    not get too down.lots of hockey left to be played.
    best of 3 now.win on the road?sure we can.we will show them how.starting demain soir,,,
    officiating?can’t let that bother/deconcentrate us.use it to motivate us even more!!!
    we gonna do it my fwends,we gonna do it,,,
    “we gonna shock the world.”coach jacques demers
    “impossible is nothin”,muhammad ali
    guyCH10 soit avec-nous en prieres et pensees

Comments are closed.