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RECAP | Blackhawks – Canadiens: Habs Playoff Chances Dimming

Chicago Blackhawks vs Montreal Canadiens Game Recap: Line-up, Score, Statistics, Highlights, Post-game, Three-Stars

FINAL | Game 72, Home Game 36 | Saturday March 16, 2019
Bell Centre, Montreal, QC

CANADIENS

Montreal

0-2

BLACKHAWKS

Chicago

(Photo by Jean-Yves Ahern / USA TODAY Sports)

Canadiens Lineup

Forward lines

Tomas Tatar – Phillip Danault – Brendan Gallagher

Artturi Lehkonen – Max Domi – Andrew Shaw

Jonathan Drouin – Jesperi Kotkaniemi – Joel Armia

Paul Byron – Nate Thompson – Jordan Weal

Defense pairings

Victor Mete – Shea Weber

Brett Kulak – Jeff Petry

Jordie Benn – Christian Folin

Goaltenders

Carey Price – Antti Niemi

Scratches

Charles Hudon, Nicolas Deslauriers, Dale Weise, Matthew Peca, Mike Reilly, Charlie Lindgren

Injuries

none

Game Report

Andrew Shaw said that the Canadiens needed to play with greater urgency. With just 11 games left in the regular season coming into tonight, the time was now.

And to their credit, Shaw with linemates Max Domi and Artturi Lehkonen played with urgency on every shift. They worked hard and created scoring chances. Lehkonen had some of the best quality scoring chances of the night.

Regretfully, too many of the Canadiens interpreted Shaw’s comments differently playing instead with panic. Quantity was prioritized over quality shots and the Habs didn’t do enough to get to abundant rebounds.

There’s no question that both goaltenders, Corey Crawford and Carey Price, played  excellent games but the Canadiens failed to capitalize on their opportunities.

Some panic seems to have crept into the coach’s game as well as he overreacted to perceived mistakes made by his rookie centre. Jesperi Kotkaniemi rarely saw the ice in the third period playing just 7:56 in the game.

Meanwhile, Jonathan Drouin continued to flash his get-out-of-jail-free card coasting to extend his pointless streak. Drouin also made a weak defensive play on Dylan Strome in the second period that led to the game’s opening goal.

The Canadiens have dug a deep hole for themselves as they will likely have to win eight of their final ten games to qualify for the playoffs. With tonight’s loss, the Habs chances of making the playoffs are down to 18.8 percent as estimated by Sports Club Stats.

Plus / Minus

▲  Carey Price, Artturi Lehkonen, Jordan Weal, Andrew Shaw

▼  Jonathan Drouin, Brendan Gallagher, Phillip Danault, Brett Kulak

The Numbers

 Game Statistics 
CANADIENS   BLACKHAWKS
48 Shots 24
46 Face-off % 54
0-for-4 Power Play 0-for-2
4 Penalty Minutes 8
29 Hits 15
71 Corsi For 43
 Scoring Summary
 FINAL 1 2 3 OT SO T
 Canadiens (37-28-7) 0 0 0 0
 Blackhawks (32-30-9) 0 1 1 2
Scorers Goalies
  • MTL: no scoring
  • CHI: Murphy (4), Perlini (13)
  • MTL: Price (L) 29-22-5
  • CHI: Crawford (W) 12-15-2

Stars of the Game

 NHL Official Three Stars
  1. Corey Crawford  CHI
  2. Alex DeBrincat  CHI
  3. Carey Price  MTL

Watch

 Video Highlights 

What Did They Say?

 Post-game Quotes
Claude Julien  
  • “The timing just isn’t good for us to struggle right now. The effort is there. The caring is there. The only thing missing right now is our game to be at its best. It’s just not there.”
Carey Price
  • “It’s desperation time. It’s all about trying to keep that positive attitude, and negativity isn’t going to help us at all, neither is feeling sorry for ourselves. It’s pretty easy to get up on Sunday and rest, and then come back to work on Monday. You’ve got to keep driving.”
Blackhawks goaltender Corey Crawford
  • “I thought we played really well. Even though they were coming with pressure at the end we didn’t panic. We kept things to the outside and waited for pucks to come into the middle and break it up. That was great by us to not lose our cool at the end.”

Quotes courtesy of NHL.com

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