Canadiens Lineup

Cole Caufield – Nick Suzuki – Kirby Dach

Mike Hoffman – Jake Evans – Josh Anderson

Juraj Slafkovsky – Christian Dvorak – Brendan Gallagher 

Evgenii Dadonov – Jonathan Drouin – Joel Armia

Joel Edmundson – Kaiden Guhle

Arber Xhekaj – Johnathan Kovacevic

Jordan Harris – Justin Barron

Sam Montembeault – Jake Allen

Chris Wideman, Anthony Richard, Michael Pezzetta

Carey Price (knee), Paul Byron (hip), David Savard (upper-body), Sean Monahan (lower-body), Mike Matheson (lower-body)

Game Report

It was the return of Brendan Gallagher to the lineup after the Canadiens alternate captain missed 13 games due to an upper-body injury. In just under 14 minutes of ice-time, Gallagher was credited with one hit and had 17 minutes in penalties.

Panthers’ captain Aleksander Barkov scored had a hat trick in the first period on his way to a five-point game. It was Barkov’s first game back after being out three games with a lower-body injury.

Joel Edmundson had a miserable night in his 17 minutes patrolling the Habs blueline. Wearing an ‘A’ for the Habs, Edmundson had a minus-4 rating and 14 minutes in penalties.

Panthers’ alternate captain Matthew Tkachuk scored twice and added an assist while leading all players on the ice with nine shots on goal.

Canadiens captain Nick Suzuki did not register a shot on goal, had a minus-3 rating and was just 35 percent at the faceoff dot.

Florida defenceman Aaron Ekblad was a plus-3 in 23:24 of ice-time. Ekblad wears an ‘A’ for the Panthers.

There’s been much talk about the impact of the Canadiens featuring five rookie defencemen in the lineup for the past two games. But their play can not be blamed for the Canadiens’ poor results in Florida.

In this game, the Panthers were led by their leaders; Montreal was let down by theirs.

The Canadiens did not register a high-danger scoring chance for the first 40 minutes of the game. They have lost four straight contests and find themselves at the bottom of the Atlantic division.

Up Next

After falling under the weight of Aleksander Barkov in the third period, Kaiden Guhle headed to the dressing room and did not return to the game. He appeared to injure his right leg.

The Canadiens will face the Capitals in Washington, D.C. on Saturday afternoon for a New Year’s Eve matchup. 

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