CANADIENS
Montreal

BRUINS
Boston

Lineup

Forward lines and defense pairings 

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

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

Goaltenders

Price
Montoya

Scratches

David Desharnais, Greg Pateryn, Sven Andrighetto

Injured Reserve

Game Report

Whether you are critical of the coaching job done by Michel Therrien or are an apologist for him, there should be full agreement that the Canadiens head coach has completely lost the players. Sunday night’s game in Boston was a litmus test.

Whatever the talent level of the team or the state of their game, the Habs have always been able to ramp up their effort against their most bitter rival. The fact that they couldn’t muster any level of emotion for the Bruins should be a clear indication that they are no longer interested in the messages delivered by Therrien nor are inspired to play by him.

Marc Bergevin has painted himself into a box putting his full support behind Therrien last season when he didn’t deserve it.  But Bergevin must act during this week. Failure to axe his friend and head coach may propel the general manager to make a trade that will hurt the organization for a very long time.

And let’s put all of the Claude Julien talk to rest. In addition to the compensation required by Boston (he’s still under contract), why would the Bruins agree to help the Canadiens when they trail them in the standings by just six points? There is also the criticism that Julien’s coaching style stifles offence. Should the axe fall, the best fit for the Canadiens would be to promote Kirk Muller.

~~~

▲     

▼     Nathan Beaulieu, Phillip Danault, Nikita Nesterov, Michel Therrien

1.  Tuukka Rask  BOS
2.  Zdeno Chara  BOS
3.  Peter Cehlarik  BOS

Max Pacioretty

• “Everyone just has to improve their game, it’s that simple. Tonight there were a couple of breakdowns and then the game got out of hand. Everyone’s just got to dig deeper and play with confidence.”
• “People talk about the schedule or fatigue, but we’ve all got to deal with the same things. It’s time to look in the mirror, man up, and just worry about our own play.”
• “I’m just looking forward to the future. We’ve got a lot of work to do, but I think everybody’s got the right mindset. We’ve all got to look in the mirror and tell ourselves that no one’s going to get us out of this besides ourselves. No one’s going to feel sorry for us.”

Brendan Gallagher

• “We’re not going to make excuses in here. We need to get back to what makes us successful. We’re a really good team when everyone is chipping in and we’re rolling four lines.”
•  “Right now it seems like we’re stuck watching a little bit, hoping that someone else will be the difference maker. We need to get back to the mindset that we can all make the difference. We’ve got enough good players in here to do that.”

Alexander Radulov

• “If we won today, I would say I want the break, but after losing, you don’t want any breaks. You want to get back out there and start the next one.”

Carey Price

• “We seemed to have lost our identity.”

Quotes courtesy of NHL.com