CANADIENS
Montreal

DUCKS
Anaheim

Lineup

Forward lines and defense pairings: 

[one_half]Pacioretty- Plekanec – Gallagher
Galchenyuk – McCarron – Eller
Mitchell – Danault – Byron
Matteau – De la Rose – Andrighetto[/one_half]

[one_half_last]Markov- Subban
Emelin – Pateryn
Ellis – Barberio
[/one_half_last]

Goaltenders:

Condon
Scrivens

Scratches:  Victor Bartley, Lucas Lessio, Mike Brown
Injured reserve:  Carey Price, Daniel Carr, Brian Flynn, Jeff Petry, David Desharnais, Tom Gilbert, Nathan Beaulieu

Game Report

Another loss to add to the growing heap. That’s 34 on the season, all tolled, if you’re counting. But this one was different. It was a loss that left Habs fans with some hope for the future.

I have been saying for quite some time that I’d like to see what Michael McCarron could do as the Canadiens regular third line centre.  On Wednesday night McCarron got a chance to play with two natural centres on the second line and didn’t look out of place. He crashed the boards, drove to the net and even dropped the gloves with Kevin Bieksa after Bieksa leveled Lars Eller with a dangerous double forearm to the head.

Ultimately, it will be McCarron’s skating that decides where he plays up or down the lineup but it should be at the centre position. Eller is an exceptional second or third line centre. Jacob De la Rose and Phillip Danault can split the fourth line duties in the middle. So where exactly does David Desharnais fit on this roster when he is ready to return from injury?

The clear truth is: he doesn’t. Desharnais should be sent to St. John’s for the remaining games and bought out at season’s end.

I’m starting to think that it is less important that Alex Galchenyuk plays centre for the Canadiens as long as he is getting minutes and power-play shifts AND that he is paired with players who compliment his style of play. There is no question that Galchenyuk and Eller have strong chemistry and can dominate shifts on their own.

Another IceCaps call-up, Morgan Ellis, made his NHL debut and had a solid game in just over 10 minutes of icetime. Ellis, the leading scorer on the St. John’s defense core, had five shot attempts in the game. As I’ve mentioned numerous times Ellis is miles ahead of Victor Bartley on the depth chart.

Losing is never fun but to see the Canadiens play with energy, intensity and a willingness to stand up for each other was refreshing.

The Canadiens will be in Los Angeles on Thursday as their western road trip continues.

~~~

▲     Alex Galchenyuk, Lars Eller, Michael McCarron, Phillip Danault, Greg Pateryn, Morgan Ellis, Max Pacioretty, Andrei Markov

▼     Stefan Matteau, Mark Barberio

1. Corey Perry  ANA
2. Alex Galchenyuk  MTL
3. Jamie McGinn  ANA

• “Our team battled hard. We played against a good hockey team and we know we have to show a lot of character. I really appreciate the effort tonight.”

Max Pacioretty

• “They made us pay for it on their power play. We knew they had a good power play and they were hot lately. If we had bared down, maybe we’d end up with two points. But I’ll take the energy and the game that we played. We really liked the way we played.“

Alex Galchenyuk

• “A game like this is such a close game. It could have gone either way. It’s unfortunate that we ended up being on the losing side again. We played a pretty great team. We showed up and competed and made plays. It was fun to play. I think the penalties killed the momentum a little bit. There were some tough calls, but that’s part of the game. Stuff happens. We’ve got a game on Thursday night, so we’ve got to bounce back.”
• “I thought [Michael McCarron] was pretty strong. He’s a big guy. He wins the battles down low and created space for me and Lars. It’s one game, so we’ve got to keep going and keep creating offense and be solid defensively also.”

Michael McCarron

• “If I’m on the ice and someone gets buried like that, I’m going to step in. That wasn’t a very clean hit, either. It’s a part of the game. I’m going to have to do that.“

Morgan Ellis

• “I felt good. At the morning skate, you try and get some of the jitters out, but there’s still a lot more to start the game. Once I got my first shift out there, though, I just tried to settle in and play poised and in control. For the most part, it wasn’t too bad [a performance], but there still are some areas to improve on, for sure.”

Ducks coach Bruce Boudreau

• “I didn’t think we played very good and you’ve got to give that other team credit because they played really good. And they kept coming and kept coming and it was just the fact that we’re getting a good will to win right now. That kept us going.”

Quotes courtesy of NHL.com