CANADIENS
Montreal

BLUE JACKETS
Columbus

Lineup

Forward lines and defense pairings: 

[one_half]Galchenyuk – Plekanec – Gallagher
Pacioretty – Desharnais – Flynn
Fleischmann – Eller – Smith-Pelly
De la Rose – Mitchell – Weise[/one_half]

[one_half_last]Markov- Subban
Emelin – Petry
Beaulieu – Barberio[/one_half_last]

Goaltenders:

Scrivens
Condon

Scratches: Greg Pateryn, Tom Gilbert, Daniel Carr
Injured reserve:  Carey Price, Paul Byron

Game Report

This is getting embarrassing. Yet another mark of futility. The Canadiens lost back-to-back games to the last place team in the league for the first time since the 1984-’85 season. Then it was the Toronto Maple Leafs. This year, it is the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Mercifully, the NHL All-Star break has arrived for the woeful Montreal Canadiens. It’s time for the players to clear their heads and for management to strategize on how to turn this season around in the absence of Carey Price.

When asked post-game what he will be doing over the next few days, Michel Therrien curtly replied, “That’s private.”

In other words, expect your favorite foxhole buddy not only to still have his guarantee when he returns behind the bench next week in Philadelphia but be sporting a lovely orange tan. And you can expect the Canadiens to continue to stumble along. From the top team in the league two months ago, Montreal currently is 20th.

Coach Therrien refuses to change his system preferring to blame the execution. After the game, P.K. Subban was his target saying that his top defenceman shouldn’t be giving the puck away. No question, Subban had an awful game being on the ice for three goals against. And playing an active role with egregious turnovers.

But there is much more wrong with the Canadiens than giveaways. It begins with Therrien’s system and lack of coaching.

Let’s add the coach’s ridiculous line combinations to the list of fixable issues. Max Pacioretty, David Desharnais and Brian Flynn was a thing last night. I suppose logic and common sense doesn’t enter the picture when one is wearing an immunity necklace.

What’s next? Therrien will create his trios by lining up the players alphabetically? In numerical order?

What about the power-play? There is no case to be made to justify the deployment of David Desharnais, Dale Weise and Brian Flynn with the man advantage.

You Montreal Canadiens are not in a slump. For the last eight weeks, they have been the worst team in the league.

The general manager whines that his job is just too hard for him.

The coach is stubborn and clueless.

From what we are told, no one is going anywhere.

People get angry when there is no accountability.  And right now, Habs fans are very angry.

~~~

▲

▼     Ben Scrivens, P.K. Subban, Jeff Petry, Brian Flynn, David Desharnais

1. Cam Atkinson  CBJ
2. Brandon Dubinsky CBJ
3. Alex Galchenyuk   MTL

• “We just had bad execution again. We [allowed] three goals where we had the puck and we gave them the puck. It’s unacceptable.”
• “I’m disappointed with the way that we execute when we have the puck. We turn pucks over. You’re not going to win many games playing that way.”

Max Pacioretty

• “We’ve got to play better tomorrow. We really need to play for 60 minutes and get the ‘W’ before we go into the break. Everyone’s frustrated with the way tonight’s game went.“

P.K. Subban

• “I really felt going out in the third period it was our game. Those moments we lose the puck or lose our heads are costing us right now.“

Blue Jackets associate coach Craig Hartsburg

• “It wasn’t always pretty. We weren’t perfect. I thought tonight we stayed with it. We didn’t crack. We made Montreal make some mistakes, which we capitalized on.”

Quotes courtesy of NHL.com