CANADIENS
Montreal

HURRICANES
Carolina

Lineup

Forward lines and defense pairings: 

[one_half]Pacioretty – Desharnais – Weise
Eller – Galchenyuk – Andrighetto
Fleischmann – Plekanec – Byron
Thomas – Flynn – Carr[/one_half]

[one_half_last]Markov – Subban
Beaulieu – Petry
Emelin – Gilbert[/one_half_last]

Goaltenders:

Condon
Fucale

Scratches:  
Injured reserve:  Brendan Gallagher, Torrey Mitchell, Carey Price, Alex Semin
Suspended: Zack Kassian

Game Report

When it was learned that Carey Price would miss six weeks due to injury, many dismissed any concern citing that the Canadiens had one of the potent attacks in the league and could absorb the occasional bad goal from Mike Condon.

But the truth is that the offence is affected with Price out of the lineup. Price controls the pace of the game, is effective at moving the puck and gives his defenceman the confidence to jump into the rush. This is in addition to making the big save at a critical time in the game.

Despite his positive qualities, Condon offers none of the above. It’s been awhile since the rookie was the best goaltender on the ice. That’s not to say that the Canadiens recent struggles should be laid at the feet of Condon even though the coach hinted in that direction post-game suggesting it is difficult to win when the team surrenders three goals.

Instead Michel Therrien should take a good long look in the mirror. If there is any single reason, it is the coach who has had the biggest negative impact on the team by dismantling the Habs lines and power-play.

The positive in this game came early when Daniel Carr scored his first NHL goal, on his first shot in his first shift. It was a good night for the former IceCaps with Sven Andrighetto picking up the Canadiens only other goal and Christian Thomas recording an assist.

The Canadiens will play division rivals this week with the Bruins, Red Wings and Senators on the schedule.

▲     Daniel Carr, Sven Andrighetto, Christian Thomas, Alex Galchenyuk, Brian Flynn, Max Pacioretty

▼    P.K. Subban, Mike Condon, David Desharnais, Michel Therrien, special teams

1. Jeff Skinner  CAR
2. Andrej Nestrasil  CAR
3. Cam Ward  CAR

• “You’ve got to be pleased about the way [Daniel Carr] performed. He got a goal, so good for him. His line played well tonight.”
• “Emotionally, it was a tough game to play. We had a big battle against Washington, and I could see the emotion was not quite there. We got some ‘A’ chances, but Cam Ward was good. To win in this League, you can’t give up three goals. It’s too demanding.”

Daniel Carr

• “It’s an honor, but a lot of credit on that play needs to go to CT and Flynner. They kept the puck moving and I just reaped the rewards of their play.“
• “I thought our line did a good job tonight of getting pucks in. and playing in their end a lot.”
• “It was awesome [to have my family watching]. They’ve been there for everything. They were the ones up at 6:00 a.m. driving me to the rink. My dad was the one up at 5:00 a.m. flooding our backyard [for me to skate on]. For them to be here with my brother tonight is a huge honor.”

Hurricanes coach Bill Peters

• “The win was big no matter what; we needed the win. We didn’t play well our last time out and we needed to bounce back. We did bounce back. Credit the guys.“
• ‘[Jeff Skinner] battled, he competed. He was real good for us tonight. It’s a sign of more good things to come. He’s been dangerous offensively without the results.”

Quotes courtesy of NHL.com