Canadiens Lineup

Cole Caufield – Sean Monahan – Rem Pitlick

Brendan Gallagher – Kirby Dach – Mike Hoffman

Juraj Slafkovsky – Christian Dvorak – Josh Anderson

Michael Pezzetta – Jake Evans – Evgenii Dadonov

Otto Leskinen – David Savard

Kaiden Guhle – Justin Barron

Arber Xhekaj – Madison Bowey

Cayden Primeau – Sam Montembeault

Jake Allen, Jonathan Drouin, Mike Matheson, Rafael Harvey-Pinard, Jesse Ylonen, Corey Schueneman, Jordan Harris, Chris Wideman

Carey Price (knee), Paul Byron (hip), Joel Edmundson (back), Logan Mailloux (shoulder), Nick Suzuki (upper-body), Joel Armia (upper-body), Emil Heineman (upper-body)

Game Report

Following the game, the Canadiens head coach was asked “Is there pressure to win at least one game (in the pre-season?)” With a grin Marty St. Louis answered, “We won the shootout!”

Yes, there was a friendly shootout. The game score didn’t dictate one but for the sake of the fans in Gander, the players obliged. Rem Pitlick was the only scorer from both teams.

The answer was an obvious deflection from the coach, who wanted to say “Of course!” Being winless in seven consecutive games of the exhibition schedule is hard to do. Given all of the variables, a team is almost guaranteed to win a game. And the Canadiens have been the home team for five of the seven contests so far.

Goaltending has been a significant issue and was again tonight. Cayden Primeau started the pre-season giving up soft goals and he hasn’t improved one bit. Primeau has four losses this Fall and a save percentage of .851.

But, even more so than goaltending, is the absence of chemistry in the lines, the defence pairs and the five-man units. 

Marty St. Louis himself said that his system requires his players on the ice to be in sync. And the head coach has done nothing to make that happen.

Is this what development over results looks like? Well, that would be a stretch. Because it’s not apparent that the team nor individual players are moving forward; not yet anyway.

Besides, it’s fair to wager that St. Louis will be prioritizing results on Saturday. Because, whether acknowledged or not, it is important for his team to win one game, the final game of the pre-season.

Up Next

The Canadiens will continue with their Kraft Hockeyville tour at the J.K. Irving Centre in  Bouctouche, NB. on Saturday night. Their opponents will once again be the Ottawa Senators in a game that will conclude the exhibition schedule. 

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