Canadiens Lineup

Jonathan Drouin – Nick Suzuki – Josh Anderson

Tyler Toffoli – Phillip Danault – Brendan Gallagher

Tomas Tatar – Jesperi Kotkaniemi – Joel Armia

Artturi Lehkonen – Jake Evans – Paul Byron

Ben Chiarot – Shea Weber

Joel Edmundson – Jeff Petry

Brett Kulak – Alexander Romanov

Jake Allen – Carey Price

Victor Mete

Hayden Verbeek, Michael Frolik, Corey Perry, Charlie Lindgren

Game Report

Claude Julien’s mantra for this season has been repeated by the players many times: ‘Good teams don’t lose two games in a row.’ With the Canadiens suffering back-to-back losses versus the Leafs and the Oilers, the logical question is “So, what now?”

The Canadiens came out in this game with more urgency, carrying the play for a few minutes in the opening period. That said, it was the Oilers opening the scoring with Jujhar Khaira‘s shot beating Jake Allen for his second goal of the year.

To their credit, the Canadiens played a better defensive game limiting quality Edmonton shots.

Claude Julien took it upon himself to try to spark Phillip Danault’s game, who is struggling both defensively and offensively this season. Julien bumped Tyler Toffoli, the top-scoring Canadiens forward, was bumped to the Danault line but without the hoped-for results. 

Danault got in on the scoring of the second Edmonton goal. A puck that squeaked through Allen and on it’s way towards the goal line was cleared by Shea Weber right into Danault’s leg caroming back towards Weber and into the Canadiens net.

Speaking of leaky goaltending, there were an abundance of rebounds in the Montreal  end of the rink. It wasn’t the best game for Allen, who was fighting the puck at times,  but he certainly wasn’t to blame for the loss given the lack of offence by the Canadiens.  

Scoring Drought

Why do the Habs find themselves in a power outage after lighting up the league with a 7-1-2 record at the start of the season? In this column, we predicted that goal scoring would start to dry up as shooting percentage returned to average and as opponents made adjustments to control the middle of the ice.

That’s why it was crucial for Montreal to both improve their defensive game and work harder in the offensive zone to get to prime goal scoring areas. The team must get back to fundamentals like using their speed and winning puck battles.

Don’t look now but the Canadiens now have a losing record at home while they have not yet lost in regulation on the road. Another mantra from Julien this season was that the Canadiens must be dominant at the Bell Centre. Yet, their home record looks a lot like last season. 

Up Next

Plus / Minus

▲ Jake Evans

▼ Jonathan Drouin, Ben Chiarot, Phillip Danault

Game Preview