CANADIENS
Montreal

1-3

BLUES
St. Louis

Lineup

Forward lines and defense pairings 

[one_half]Pacioretty – Byron – Hudon
Galchenyuk – Drouin – Deslauriers
Lehkonen – Plekanec – Gallagher
De La Rose – Froese – L. Shaw
[/one_half]

[one_half_last]Alzner – Petry
Mete – Schlemko
Morrow – Jerabek
[/one_half_last]

Goaltenders

Price
Niemi

Scratches

Daniel Carr, Jordie Benn

Injuries

Ales Hemsky – concussion, Shea Weber – lower-body, Phillip Danault – concussion, Andrew Shaw – lower-body

Game Report 

Coach Claude Julien had publicly accused his team of not being ready to play in their last game. They were tonight. The Canadiens came out flying winning races to the puck all over the ice.

For the first 17:02, Montreal did not allow a shot on goal and they had 11 of their own on Blues goaltender Carter Hutton. But in all of that time of possession, the Canadiens buzzed around the perimeter, unable to get close to the St. Louis goal.

But then the sixth place team in the league hit back, hard. The Blues pumped eight shots on Carey Price in the last 2:58 of the first period. And St. Louis offence was not tip-toeing around the outside. Driving to the net, they finished the opening frame with several high-danger scoring chances.

And the Blues picked up where they left off in the second period. Karl Alzner provided the screen for a goal by Ivan Barbashev. Early in the third period, the Canadiens had more players on the ice than on the bench resulting in a too-many-men penalty. St. Louis would capitalize with a power-play goal from Patrik Berglund.

And that’s all that was needed. The Canadiens mustered their best effort which amounted to a little less than a period’s worth, and then folded to the superior team

At this point, most Canadiens fans are ready to embrace a culling of the herd, although there is considerable disagreement regarding who should be the players to go. But as that happens, Habs supporters would welcome a team sprinkled with replacements from Laval would put forth an honest effort and further their development with an eye towards next season.

===

▲  Carey Price

▼  David Schlemko, Karl Alzner, Jonathan Drouin, Logan Shaw

1. Carter Hutton  STL
2. Ivan Barbashev  STL
3. Jay Bouwmeester  STL

• “We talked about it a lot in between periods. We have to find a way to get down low inside the dots and go to the net like they did on their second goal. That’s what we were missing. With the way Hutton is playing lately, it was so important to create more traffic in front of him like we did on the goal we scored. That’s what hurt us most.”
• “When you get nothing out of the effort you put in, you give the other team a chance to get back into the game. You give them life and they capitalized on their chances a lot more than we did.”

Max Pacioretty

• “We’re not looking for moral victories, we’re looking for points. Really what we need amongst ourselves is answers as to how to win hockey games. It hasn’t been there at all this year. Even when we play pretty decent, it seems like it’s just not enough. We have to figure out how and why that’s happening and find ways to win.”

Alex Galchenyuk

• “I thought we didn’t create that much. He’s a good goalie. We need to create more chances. Especially when it’s 1-0, there’s no surprise there. It’s a one-goal game. We had to tie it. They scored the second one, which was a big goal. We’ve got to find a way to create more and get to the net more.”

Quotes courtesy of NHL.com

AHL ALL-STAR CLASSIC | Chris Terry and Matt Taormina Show Off Their Skills [AUDIO/VIDEO] https://t.co/ElYDHvvpkk pic.twitter.com/jM5nd1hsPR

— AHL Report (@TheAHLReport) January 29, 2018

Looking for a goal? Just add Froese to the Pacioretty line… @TheAHLReport @RocketSports @AllHabs pic.twitter.com/BAVPVvkulv

— Matt Smith (@Snakebite350) January 31, 2018

L. Shaw asking himself "Who was suppose to cover Berglund?" #Habs @AllHabs pic.twitter.com/86a7bGiPLZ

— Mathieu CHagnon (@Mat_CH) January 31, 2018

Follow @AllHabs on Twitter