CANADIENS
Montreal

CANUCKS
Vancouver

Lineup

Forward lines and defense pairings 

[one_half]Tatar – Danault – Gallagher
Drouin – Domi – Shaw
Agostino – Kotkaniemi – Lehkonen
Deslauriers – Peca – Hudon
[/one_half]

[one_half_last]Benn – Petry
Schlemko – Juulsen
Ouellet – Mete

[/one_half_last]

Goaltenders

Price
Niemi

Scratches

Reilly, Alzner

Injuries

Weber, Byron, Armia, Scherbak

Game Report 

The Western Canadian road trip is typically not kind to the Montreal Canadiens. And it didn’t start well.

After the Canadiens failing the initial test, a 6-2 loss to the Oilers, questions were being raised. Montreal has struggled from the start of the season in their own zone, and Tuesday’s game was no exception. Add to that four weak goals allowed by Antti Niemi and one wondered how the trip would end, given that the opposition got better in Calgary and Vancouver.

Leave it to the underappreciated superstar, Carey Price. Almost single-handedly, Price put his team on his back, winning both of his starts in Western Canada.

What has been bewildering to Price, and many of us, is why many so-called Habs fans (and Montreal media) deliriously want him to fail? In the face of all of this animosity, Price simply shut out the noise, took charge of his team and made his team believe.

So at the conclusion of this important road trip, Montreal finds themselves as a wildcard team. With American Thanksgiving just around the corner, Canadiens fans can start think about the possibility of playoffs once again.

There is a lot to fix between now and April. The defence assembled by Marc Bergevin is exceptionally weak. And the addition of Shea Weber cannot solve all the issues on the backend. Elliotte Friedman reported that Bergevin is trying to move a defenceman.

Claude Julien must be weaned from playing his favourites. The deadwood on the fourth line must be jettisoned. And Julien must demand accountability from his top-6 forwards who are not committing themselves to playing defensively responsible hockey.

And the Canadiens must fix their power-play. The Habs were 30th in the league with the man advantage coming into tonight’s game. They went on an 0-for-13 streak on the power-play. Tonight, Montreal converted for only the third time in 40 attempts.

The Canadiens will return home riding high from their successful road trip. But they have a laundry list of items that need attention so that they won’t have to rely so heavily on their franchise goaltender.

===

▲  Carey Price, Artturi Lehkonen, Jeff Petry, Tomas Tatar, Brendan Gallagher

▼  Charles Hudon, Matthew Peca, Nicolas Deslauriers, Victor Mete, Xavier Ouellet

1. Carey Price  MTL
2. Elias Petterson  VAN
3. Jonathan Drouin  MTL

• “Four out of six points out West is something I’d take anytime.”
• “I think [Carey Price] is fresh, he’s excited. He’s been good. I think our players are really happy for him because he made some good saves in the third period. Good for him for giving us that opportunity to get back and win the game.”

Jeff Petry

• “It’s a challenge every night, most of the time playing against the top line. We’re all competitive guys, and you want to shut down the team’s top line. If you do a good job at that, you have a good chance to win the game. It’s something I take pride in and enjoy doing.”

Tomas Tatar

• “We were pretty upset about the game in Edmonton. We knew we weren’t good enough, and we talked about it. We had a huge bounce back in Calgary, and we wanted to have these two points.”

Quotes courtesy of NHL.com