Canadiens Lineup

Tyler Toffoli – Nick Suzuki – Joel Armia

Tomas Tatar – Jesperi Kotkaniemi – Josh Anderson

Paul Byron – Jake Evans – Artturi Lehkonen

Corey Perry – Eric Staal – Cole Caufield

Brett Kulak – Ben Chiarot

Joel Edmundson – Jeff Petry

Alexander Romanov – Jon Merrill

Jake Allen – Cayden Primeau

Erik Gustafsson, Alex Belzile

Michael Frolik, Joseph Blandisi, Charlie Lindgren, Michael Pezzetta, Joel Teasdale

Brendan Gallagher (hand), Carey Price (concussion), Paul Byron (lower-body), Jonathan Drouin (undisclosed), Shea Weber (upper-body), Phillip Danault (concussion)

Game Report

Habs Twitter is an odd place at the best of times, but it’s become a little more peculiar lately. There has been a lot of cheering for losses — cheering for the Jets, Flames and Canucks to lose — and plenty of confusion when those teams play each other. ‘Who do we want to lose more?,’ is a question that has appeared regularly on social media.

Tonight, as Habs fans were celebrating after watching their team lose in overtime to the Oilers, a blue check marked account tweeted:

“We lost tonight but we somehow… won? Habs will make the series! I’ll never understand Hockey.”

Yes, by virtue of a single point, the Canadiens have stumbled into the 2021 NHL playoffs despite falling victim to Connor McDavid in extra time. ‘Stumbled’ is not too harsh a word, as Montreal has lost four straight games and hasn’t won in regulation since April 30th, yet they locked up the last playoff position in the North division.

With the Oilers having nothing to play for, tonight’s game was a rather awkward dance. Goaltenders Mikko Koskinen and Jake Allen seemed determined to outdo each other  making ill-advised excursions out of the blue paint and giving up juicy rebounds.

But it was the Canadiens third line that was charged with the responsibility of shadowing Connor McDavid and his line. While Jake Evans, Artturi Lehkonen and Paul Byron were doing an effective job defensively on McDavid, they decided to supply the offence as well. The trio scored all three Montreal goals and collectively recorded eight points.

Evans and Lehkonen led the way with a goal and two assists each.

So Marc Bergevin has assembled a team that barely qualified for the playoffs under the special circumstances of a pandemic for the second season in a row. At the start of the season, when the general manager proudly crowed about his high expectations for his team, is this what you have in mind? No, me neither.

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