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Missed Chances | RECAP: TBL @ MTL

Montreal Canadiens vs Tampa Bay Lightning, Game Recap: Habs, Line-up, Score, Statistics, Highlights, Post-game, Interviews, NHL, Three-Stars

FINAL | Game 27, Home Game 14 | Tuesday December 7, 2021
Bell Centre, Montreal, QC

CANADIENS

Montreal

2-3

LIGHTNING

Tampa Bay

Jake Allen (Photo by Francois Lacasse/NHLI via Getty Images)

Canadiens Lineup

Forward lines

Mike Hoffman – Nick Suzuki – Jonathan Drouin

Artturi Lehkonen – Christian Dvorak – Jake Evans

Mathieu Perreault – Ryan Poehling – Cole Caufield

Michael Pezzetta – Cedric Paquette – Laurent Dauphin

Defence pairings

Ben Chiarot – David Savard

Alexander Romanov – Chris Wideman

Brett Kulak – Kale Clague

Goaltenders

Jake Allen – Sam Montembeault

Scratches

Corey Schueneman

Injuries

Joel Armia (undisclosed), Tyler Toffoli (upper-body), Jeff Petry (upper-body), Josh Anderson (upper-body), Joel Edmundson (back), Carey Price (knee), Paul Byron (hip), Shea Weber (multiple injuries)

COVID-19 protocol

Brendan Gallagher, Sami Niku

Game Report

It’s often said that there are no moral victories in hockey, but in a season that is lost already, there can be priorities that are as important as winning. The Canadiens are in 31st place in a 32-team league. A realistic possibility of making the playoffs hasn’t been in the cards since October.

Dominique Ducharme says that if he gets the message from management to give more ice time to younger players, he will comply. But a head coach with vision would already have made them a priority.

The future success of the Canadiens relies on the growth of Nick Suzuki but also players like Ryan Poehling and Cole Caufield. Yet Ducharme would much rather defer to spare parts like Cedric Paquette, Mathieu Perreault and the recently recalled Laurent Dauphin.

Ducharme explained the loss of a centre to injury as his rationale to use Dauphin for 15:09. Dauphin began the game on the wing of the fourth line. Poehling had another strong game but received a minute and a half less in ice time.

Dauphin was on the ice for Tampa’s first goal of the game. And oddly, he was out there with less than a minute to go in a tied contest. Dauphin finished the game with a minus-2 rating.

Paquette was also on the ice for the Lightning’s first goal. And he was only successful on 22 per cent of his faceoffs throughout the evening.

Perhaps Ducharme is hoping for another supportive tweet from Francois Legault for prioritizing ice time for home grown players. Otherwise, his decision-making is doing little to demonstrate that he has an understanding of how to develop young players for the future of the Montreal Canadiens.

Let them play

And while we’re on the topic, Canadiens management sent Mattias Norlinder to the Laval Rocket to get more ice time and some experience on the power-play. Why? It’s simply bad coaching if Norlinder can’t get into the lineup of a 31st place team and a sputtering 28th ranked power-play.

The Habs’ issues go well beyond coaching. But coaching matters particularly when grooming young, talented players to become the next core of the Montreal Canadiens. 

Up Next

The Canadiens will host the Chicago Blackhawks on Thursday at the Bell Centre.

Plus

▲  Nick Suzuki, Mike Hoffman, Ryan Poehling, Jake Evans, Artturi Lehkonen

Minus

▼  Laurent Dauphin, Brett Kulak, Mathieu Perreault, Kale Clague, Cedric Paquette, Cole Caufield, David Savard

Game Preview

Check out the game preview here: Habs Debut for Clague | PREVIEW: TBL @ MTL

The Numbers

Game Statistics
CANADIENS   LIGHTNING
23 Shots 27
51 Face-off % 49
0-for-1 Power Play 0-for-3
13 Penalty Minutes 19
18 Hits 14
37 Corsi For 48
Scoring Summary
FINAL 1 2 3 OT SO T
Canadiens (6-18-3) 0 2 0 2
Lightning (16-5-4) 1 0 2 3
Scorers Goalies
  • MTL: Suzuki (6), Drouin (4)
  • TBL: Maroon (6), Perry (6), Palat (7)
  • MTL: Allen (L) (5-12-2)
  • TBL: Vasilevskiy (W) (13-4-3)

Stars of the Game

Official NHL Three Stars
  1. Ondrej Palat  TBL
  2. Nick Suzuki  MTL
  3. Corey Perry  TBL

Watch

Video Highlights

What Did They Say?

Post-game Quotes

Dominique Ducharme

  • “Several guys can either play a different role or have a chance with our team. Everyone pushed for success, added Ducharme. Individually, the players want to show us that they can hold their own in this league. Collectively, we were still solid.”

Nick Suzuki

  • “A lot of the guys here are trying to prove things, to secure their position,” said Suzuki. We’ve been playing a lot better lately. We could easily have won a few games in a row. Little things hurt us.”

David Savard

  • “I was trying to keep the puck in their territory to continue the forecheck. There wasn’t much time left. He came and hit me and I got caught on the other side. We gave up a 2-on-1. It cost us the game. If I had to do it again, I would make another decision.”

Quotes courtesy of NHL.com

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