CANADIENS
Montreal

2-1

CAPITALS
Washington

Lineup

Forward lines and defense pairings 

[one_half]Pacioretty – Danault – Radulov
Byron – Mitchell – Gallagher
Lehkonen – Plekanec – Flynn
Carr – McCarron – Terry
[/one_half]

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

Goaltenders

Price
Montoya

Scratches

Andrew Shaw (concussion), Sven Andrighetto (upper body), Zach Redmond

Injured Reserve

Alex Galchenyuk (knee), David Desharnais (knee), Greg Pateryn (ankle) 

Game Report

So much for Michel Therrien having his team ready to play.. again. It didn’t look good early as red sweaters streamed over the Canadiens blueline at will. The Capitals offence put on a possession clinic with 12 shot attempts in the first 5:24 of the game. At the same mark, Montreal had three.

By the 12 minute mark, Washington had a 18-4 advantage in shot attempts. This could have got ugly very quickly. And Habs fans were expressing real concern on social media, especially given the result against San Jose just one night before.

But Carey Price conjured up his best Gandalf declaring ‘you shall not pass.’

Enter Artturi Lehkonen who fooled Braden Holtby with his speed on the wrap-a-round. It was 1-0 for the visitors. The combination of the impenetrable Price and the bold rookie seemed to deflate the Capitals. It also buoyed a lackluster Canadiens team who controlled play for the rest of the first period.

The two teams played a fairly even, defensive-minded game for the final two periods. The would trade goals in the second period with Jeff Petry scoring the game-winner from a superb feed by Max Pacioretty. The only goal given up by Price came on a 5-on-3 advantage for the Capitals.

Injuries were once again a concern with Andrei Markov being forced to leave the game. And Shea Weber taking a 99 mph slap shot in a place where there was no padding. The warrior returned to the game to help cement the victory. With 20 saves, Price earned his 250th career win, the fourth goaltender to reach that mark in Canadiens history.

Post-game, Price confirmed that he was not pleased with getting pulled the night before but said that issue was set aside as the team had a job to do.

~~~

▲     Carey Price, Arturri Lehkonen, Shea Weber, Alexei Emelin, Andrei Markov, Max Pacioretty, Jeff Petry, Michael McCarron

▼     Paul Byron, Nathan Beaulieu, power-play

1.  Jeff Petry  MTL
2.  Tom Wilson  WSH
3.  Artturi Lehkonen MTL

• “We had to take time and space away from them. Our positioning was good. It was important for us to play tight in front of a team with such great offensive firepower.”
• “It took a lot of character to bounce back and they showed a lot of it. Everybody was very responsible and performed in their role. That gave a lot of confidence to the group.”

Shea Weber

• “We know exactly what we’re going to get from [Carey Price] every night. We weren’t good enough for him [against San Jose] and we did a lot better job in protecting him and clearing everything out of the way for him.”
• “We’re a tight group in here and everyone wants to be good for each other and take responsibility. He’s one of our teammates and we’ve got to be a lot better for him.”

Carey Price

• “I think it was important for everybody to get that opportunity to bounce back. I didn’t have any doubts about the resiliency of our hockey team and the way we respond, so it definitely felt good to come in here and get a big win.”
• “We played extremely hard on the defensive side of the puck. That’s a very skilled offensive team and I thought we did a really good job with containing their offense.”
• About his interaction with Michel Therrien and the coaching staff on Friday night: “Yeah, we’re all good. I think we’re all professionals and we are able to realize that hockey is an emotional game. Sometimes you are not going to see eye-to-eye on things. At the end of the day, you show up to work the next day and get the job done.”

Quotes courtesy of NHL.com

https://twitter.com/mattCH_/status/810297747739967488

RECAP | IceCaps – Americans: ‘Caps Come Back, Can’t Finish https://t.co/e3xfsh1E0O pic.twitter.com/jyeG77SOAE

— AHL Report (@TheAHLReport) December 18, 2016

https://twitter.com/HabsHappy/status/810293353300557824

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