CANADIENS
Montreal

BLACKHAWKS
Chicago

Game Notes:

Where’s PK? The Canadiens No. 1 defenceman and highest paid player has been AWOL so far this season. Every aspect of his game is well-below expectations but what is most concerning is his decision-making. P.K. Subban left his man Brad Richards all alone to join his defensive partner Andrei Markov in the corner. Richards scored the Blackhawks third goal early in the third period that seemed to remove most of the air out of the Bell Centre. Subban also took another penalty keeping him atop the league with 11 minors, tied with Steve Downie and Dion Phaneuf.

First line is broken. Sadly, that’s not news. The lack of offense by a David Desharnais-led line goes back to last year’s playoffs. Desharnais is slow, doesn’t shoot and is constantly turning over the puck. His lack of production is also hurting the power-play. Despite being given every advantage — best linemates, offensive zone starts, low quality opposition, power-play time — he is not leading the Canadiens offense.

Deck chairs. Fans calling for Jiri Sekac to be returned to the lineup are correct, he deserves another shot. But it’s naive to think Sekac is the answer to what ails the Canadiens.  Inserting an eight-minute player like Michael Bournival in place of Travis Moen had no affect. In fact it could be argued that the Habs missed Moen on the penalty-kill giving up a goal. The problems plaguing the team aren’t going to be fixed by tinkering with bottom six forwards or bottom pairing defencemen especially when the top centre and top d-man have played so poorly.

Leadership. The issue of leadership is about to come into play as the Habs now face adversity. Almost anyone can be a leader in good times. But the effect of losing people who had a major effect on the room last year like Josh Gorges, Brian Gionta, Peter Budaj, Gerard Gallant is about to be tested.

All eyes on the coach. Michel Therrien ran into trouble in his previous coaching gigs when his characteristics of arrogance and stubbornness, and a disconnect with the players came to the surface. This version of the Canadiens  knows that they are better than their recent performances. So does Marc Bergevin. Coach Therrien can start by changing up the personnel choices to kickstart the power-play.

Plus / Minus

▲   Carey Price

▼   P.K. Subban, David Desharnais, Dale Weise, Rene Bourque, Nathan Beaulieu

1.  Jonathan Toews  CHI 
2.  Duncan Keith  CHI
3.  Patrick Kane  CHI

• “We’re facing adversity, there’s no doubt about that. The only thing we can focus on is putting three periods together. We didn’t do that tonight. We only played half the game.”
• “The power play killed us tonight. Instead of giving us momentum, it hurt us by taking away the momentum, especially in the second period. We’re having trouble getting on the right track because our transition game isn’t there.”

Tomas Plekanec

• “Nothing’s working for us. I mean, I thought we played hard in the first period, we put pucks to the net. We need to take a step back. We have to stay positive as much as possible and we’ve got to fight through it. We’ve got to help ourselves, somehow.”

P.K. Subban

• “As a defenseman, I have to say that being in front of the net today, they didn’t make it easy. They were there every time. Maybe we can take a page out of their book and realize we have to get in front of their goaltender and make it tough.”
• “Every time I can remember being on the ice, there was a guy in front of the net. Did they get some lucky bounces in front of the net? Yeah they did, but you have to be there to get those bounces. One goes off a skate, one kind of hits a shoulder and goes in, but that’s playoff hockey they’re playing out there. That’s what good teams do. Maybe we can take a page from them and execute that tomorrow.”

Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville

• On getting traffic in front of the net: “That’s the way you score in this league. You know, the goalie sees the puck, particularly a guy like [Price]; he’ll stop every single shot.”