CANADIENS
Montreal

BLACKHAWKS
Chicago

Lineup

Forward lines and defense pairings 

[one_half]Byron – Galchenyuk – Radulov
Andrighetto – Plekanec – Gallagher
Pacioretty – Danault – Shaw
Desharnais – Mitchell – Carr[/one_half]

[one_half_last]Emelin – Weber
Markov – Petry
Beaulieu – Hanley
[/one_half_last]

Goaltenders

Montoya
Price

Scratches

Greg Pateryn, Brian Flynn (upper body)

Injured Reserve

Zach Redmond, Artturi Lehkonen

Game Report

It’s pretty simple. The Canadiens were beat by a better team on Sunday night.

Yes, the Canadiens are at the top of the NHL standings. And yes, it was the back half of a back-to-back for the Habs, and a road game to boot. It is where Michel Therrien chose to focus his comments post-game saying, “There are games in the season you know will be difficult: a second game in as many nights, on the road against a rested team, falls into that category.”

But the Blackhawks are surging going 9-0-2 in their last 11 games. The 11-game point streak puts the Hawks just three points behind the Canadiens.

The possession numbers look rather even after the contest. But the Hawks generated more high quality chances. Al Montoya had a good bounce-back game making numerous saves in his usual awkward-looking fashion.

Andrew Shaw could have completed a storybook return to Chicago but Corey Crawford came up big. That said, Crawford wasn’t tested nearly as much as was Montoya. Carey Price would have certainly made a difference in this game, but that said, the Habs backup was not to blame on this night.

Despite the Canadiens underperforming on this game, they were in this game until the end. The winner for Chicago came on an extraordinary effort by Patrick Kane. An assist for the goal goes to the officials who missed the puck going into the netting (without a whistle) just prior to the play by Kane.

Montreal’s head coach also deserves some scrutiny for blowing a decision as the game winded down. Rather than being summoned to the bench, David Desharnais was deployed as the sixth attacker after exiting the penalty box (serving a minor for Montoya.) Given Desharnais’ pitiful season, he was the last player that should have been on the ice when the Canadiens were frantic to tie the game.

~~~

▲     Andrew Shaw, Andrei Markov, Andrew Shaw, Alex Galchenyuk

▼     Torrey Mitchell, Joel Hanley, Nathan Beaulieu, David Desharnais, Paul Byron

1.  Patrick Kane  CHI
2.  Jonathan Toews  CHI
3.  Andrei Markov  MTL

• “There are games in the season you know will be difficult: a second game in as many nights, on the road against a rested team, falls into that category.”

Andrew Shaw

• “I think we came out and gave it everything we had. The guys may have been a little tired, but we can’t make excuses. We knew we were coming to play a good team.”
• “Obviously my emotions were out of whack at that point, but it was great to see the fans’ support here, and their appreciation for what I accomplished here.”
• “[Al Montoya] played great for us. We gave them way too many opportunities, but he stood on his head and gave us a chance to win.”

Al Montoya

• “We were going back and forth in the first period, and then in the second we took over. Once we got that lead we kind of sat back a little bit and gave them some space. We were in it until then, so it could have gone either way.”

Quotes courtesy of NHL.com