CANADIENS
Montreal

BRUINS
Boston

Lineup

Forward lines and defense pairings 

[one_half]Pacioretty – Galchenyuk – Gallagher
Lehkonen – Plekanec – Radulov
Byron – Desharnais – Shaw
Danault – Mitchell – Flynn[/one_half]

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

Goaltenders

Price
Montoya

Scratches

Daniel Carr, Mikhail Sergachev

Injured Reserve

Zach Redmond

Game Report

Do you remember the game that former Canadiens GM Pierre Gauthier traded forward Mike Cammalleri to Calgary mid-game? Cammalleri was in the lineup to play the Bruins for the first 40 minutes of the game, then ‘vanished.’  He was never seen again in a Canadiens jersey.

For Canadiens fans, that controversial move seems a very long time ago. It was January 12, 2012.

That date was the last time that the Montreal Canadiens lost a road game to the Bruins. After Saturday night’s victory, the streak has been extended to nine games in the TD Garden.

The Habs not only won this game but controlled play for long stretches particularly in the first two periods. The Canadiens owned the neutral zone and did a great job using their speed to pressure the not-so-mobile Bruins defence.

Does that mean that Carey Price wasn’t a factor? No, quite the opposite. When Price wasn’t busy making big saves, he was controlling the pace of the play and moving the puck to contribute to the strong transition game.

The Canadiens used their depth to generate a balanced attack against the Bruins. Brendan Gallagher opened the scoring recording a goal for the top line. The Canadiens fourth line had two of the goals with the penalty-killers picking up another. And Alexander Radulov made sure that the second line was represented with a beautiful assist on the Habs second goal.

Coach Michel Therrien was very complimentary of his supporting crew.

Shea Weber continues to lead an improved defence. Weber had an assist bringing his total to five points in five games and a remarkable plus-8 rating. Apart from a bad pinch, Alexei Emelin had his characteristically strong game against the Bruins that included six hits. Greg Pateryn returned to the lineup playing a strong game with four blocked shots.

The only blemish on the back-end continues to be the play of Nathan Beaulieu who has struggled to start the season. Beaulieu has the physical tools but is regularly making poor reads and decisions. His numbers could be much worse but his play is being propped up by Weber.

The Canadiens headed back to Montreal after the game to get ready to host the Philadelphia Flyers on Monday.

~~~

▲     Brendan Gallagher, Carey Price, Torrey Mitchell, Alexander Radulov, Shea Weber

▼     Nathan Beaulieu

1. Brendan Gallagher MTL
2. Torrey Mitchell  MTL
3. Dominic Moore  BOS

• “Our support players did some exceptional work tonight. In my mind, [Paul Byron is] one of the fastest players in the NHL. We got to know him last year and we were really satisfied with his season. He’s a player who’s capable of creating scoring chances and scoring, even on the penalty kill… [Torrey Mitchell is] a warrior. He played good hockey.”

Brendan Gallagher

• “We’ve been rolling four lines pretty consistently, and it helps everyone. Everyone’s a little fresher and getting the job done, so it helps.”
• “We’ve been fortunate to be able to have some success here. It doesn’t mean the next one is going to go that way, so you just continue to play hard. We played a pretty good road game. We got away from it at times, but [Carey Price] bailed us out and the penalty kill bailed us out. It’s something to build on, for sure.”

Paul Byron

• “That was a big, big goal for us. [Torrey Mitchell] took a stick in the face and continued to make the play for the goal. It was a big moment for us. That was the goal of the game.”

Quotes courtesy of NHL.com