Canadiens Lineup

Jonathan Drouin – Max Domi – Joel Armia 

Tomas Tatar – Phillip Danault – Brendan Gallagher

Artturi Lehkonen – Jesperi Kotkaniemi –  Paul Byron

Kenny Agostino – Michael Chaput – Nicolas Deslauriers

Victor Mete – Shea Weber

Karl Alzner – Jeff Petry

Brett Kulak – Jordie Benn

Antti Niemi – Carey Price 

Matthew Peca, Charles Hudon, Mike Reilly

Andrew Shaw

Game Report

Sometimes figuring out the playoff race is rather straightforward. A quick scan of the teams currently sitting in a playoff spot reveals that they all have something in common: each team has a positive goal differential. Correspondingly, every team currently out of the playoffs has a negative differently.

The Canadiens differential is minus-4, so it’s obvious which side of the fence they sit on.

Montreal has been on the wrong side of that equation for much of the season. And now that teams in the East are putting together winning streaks, the Canadiens are slipping. As Brendan Gallagher said post-game, the win-one, lose-one pattern isn’t good enough at this time of the season. 

The Islanders and Sabres are one point ahead of the Habs but each team has multiple games in hand.

So what has happened? The Canadiens have scored just seven goals in five games in 2019. In a league that is averaging 3.05 goals per team, per game, the Habs current pace this calendar season of 1.4 goals per game just won’t cut it. And three of the five opponents this month sit in the bottom third of the league.

While the Habs are not scoring, they are not giving much help to their elite goaltender. Carey Price faced 21 high-danger scoring chances to the Blues. Once again, Price was outstanding making multiple spectacular saves.

Three of the goals allowed were on the breakaway, one of those was short-handed. And one of the St. Louis goals came via the power-play on the third rebound. Despite the score, Price was the Canadiens best player on this night.

The Canadiens were dominated all over the ice in every aspect of the game: special teams, faceoffs, loose puck battles. They are regularly being outworked. While Claude Julien has rotated the bottom feeders, the ones who are most culpable haven’t been held accountable.

That must change if they are to move into a playoff position and hold it.

Plus / Minus

▲  Carey Price, Brendan Gallagher, Artturi Lehkonen

▼  Jonathan Drouin, Max Domi, Jordie Benn, Michael Chaput