Canadiens Lineup

Tomas Tatar – Phillip Danault – Brendan Gallagher

Artturi Lehkonen – Max Domi – Nick Suzuki

Jonathan Drouin – Jesperi Kotkaniemi – Joel Armia

Paul Byron  – Nate Thompson – Jordan Weal

Victor Mete – Shea Weber

Ben Chiarot – Jeff Petry

Brett Kulak – Cale Fleury

Carey Price – Keith Kinkaid

Nick Cousins, Mike Reilly, Christian Folin

Noah Juulsen (headaches), Michael McCarron (shoulder), Joel Teasdale (knee)

Game Report

You often see a phrase casually tossed around on social media: “the pre-season is meaningless.” It’s false and dumb.

In truth, the pre-season is very meaningful. It is a time when jobs can be won and lost. Games have to be taken seriously and players have to be engaged so that they are well prepared for games like this.

You can be excused if you confused game 1 of the Canadiens 2019-20 season with the opening of a first round playoff series. Well, at least the atmosphere. These two teams  suddenly find themselves in a budding rivalry born from a failed, ham-handed  attempt to pluck the Hurricanes best player from its roster.

And the pace. These are two quick teams, who play at a high tempo. Both like to play with the puck. Carolina was the second best team last season in possession. The Habs were number three.

The Hurricanes are an aggressive team who attack relentlessly. The Canadiens battled hard in front of the net and along the wall. And they proved that their offence could score in bunches.

But it was that furious pace that led to mistakes from players who were not yet ready to make the leap from the relative comfort of the pre-season.

Carolina opened the scoring in the first period when sophomore centre Lucas Wallmark beat veteran Nate Thompson on the draw. Brett Kulak could not tie up Wallmark and the Hurricanes were out to a 1-0 lead late in the frame. In defence of Kulak, rookie Cale Fleury had made a bad read, leaving Kulak in front of the Canadiens goal to defend Wallmark and winger Warren Foegele.

Earlier in the period, Kulak had successfully covered for his mate when Fleury got caught out of position. After a tough start, to his credit, Fleury settled down and played with maturity after the first period. He even ended up with a chance for his first goal on an unlikely breakaway.

Thompson didn’t look good on Carolina’s tying goal in the third period. Both Nate and Paul Byron got caught watching. Ben Chiarot was culpable on the goal as well.

But like Fleury, each of the players mentioned had positive moments. Chiarot led the team with eight hits. Byron made a great pass to Jordan Weal for the Canadiens third goal. And after losing that early important faceoff, Thompson finished the game going 9-for-12 at the faceoff dot.

See the pattern?

Jonathan Drouin, who was dreadful in the pre-season, had a much better performance playing on the third line earning an assist. But Drouin was a liability on the power-play turning the puck over at the blueline more than once and missing a shot attempt by such a wide margin that it set up a scoring chance by the Canes.

And so it went. In true early season form, there were inconsistent performances from many of the Montreal Canadiens.

Standing out with a consistently good game were Carey Price, Joel Armia, Jesperi Kotkaniemi, and Artturi Lehkonen.

Price was the best player on the ice making 40 saves as the Hurricanes dominated scoring chances 30-17. Price looked in mid-season form bailing out his team who gave up several breakaways. Shots on goal in the third period were 19-7 for Carolina.

Lehkonen was strong on the penalty-kill assisting on Kotkaniemi’s first ever goal on the road. Armia was a beast along the boards and was controlled the puck for long shifts in overtime.

On the other side of the coin, Victor Mete, Phillip Danault, and Max Domi had rough nights. Domi was the weakest member of his line committing five giveaways. Danault had a team low 30.77 in Corsi for percentage and was ineffective on the penalty-kill.  Mete looked overmatched all night finishing the game with a team worst relative Corsi of -20.03.

It was a decent start to the season and a good road effort with the Canadiens picking up their first point of the campaign.

The Canadiens will practice in Toronto on Friday to get ready for their Saturday night matchup with the Maple Leafs at Scotiabank Arena.

Plus / Minus

▲  Carey Price, Joel Armia, Jesperi Kotkaniemi, Artturi Lehkonen

▼  Victor Mete, Phillip Danault, Max Domi