CANADIENS
Montreal

1-3

LIGHTNING
Tampa Bay

Lineup

Forward lines and defense pairings 

[one_half]Galchenyuk – Drouin – Lehkonen
Pacioretty – Danault – Shaw
Byron – Plekanec – Gallagher
Deslauriers – Hudon – Carr
[/one_half]

[one_half_last]Alzner – Petry
Morrow – Benn
Jerabek – Lernout
[/one_half_last]

Goaltenders

Price
Niemi

Scratches

Jacob De La Rose, Byron Froese

Injuries

Ales Hemsky – concussion, Al Montoya – concussion, Shea Weber – lower-body, David Schlemko – flu

Game Report by Chris G

The Canadiens can thank Carey Price that the Lightning didn’t take a lead early into the game. Tampa Bay started off the game with an eleven to one shot advantage before the Habs started to generate some offence and obtained scoring chances by Daniel Carr on the power play and by Paul Byron as he deflected to the crossbar a Karl Alzner shot.

Brendan Gallagher opened the scoring with a power play goal in the second period after the puck hit Gallagher’s hand following a Vasilevskiy save. The Lightning tied the game with eleven seconds remaining in the period as Kucherov beat Karl Alzner to negate an icing before feeding Steven Stamkos in front of the net who beat Carey Price.

The Lightning seemed energized from that goal and struck thirty seconds into the third period as Brayden Point capitalized on a loose puck. If you are keeping count, that was the 12th time this season that the Canadiens allow two goals in under a minute. Steven Stamkos scored his second goal of the night during a 5-on-3 power play.

The Canadiens played well from the mid-point of the first period up until Stamkos’ goal at the end of the second period. Claude Julien started off the game with new line combinations but wasn’t enough to get more offensive production from his team. In fact, this was the 13th time that the Canadiens score one goal or less in a game this season. That is the most in the league tied with the Coyotes.

Meanwhile, the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Boston Bruins each got points in the standings and the playoff chances for the Habs continue to shrink.

~~~

▲   Carey Price, Alex Galchenyuk, Jakub Jerabek

▼  Karl Alzner, Max Pacioretty, Jonathan Drouin

1. Steven Stamkos  TB
2. Brayden Point  TB
3. Nikita Kucherov  TB

• “Our goalie was extraordinary tonight. If we continue to have a goalie who keeps making saves like that tonight, he’ll continue to give us a chance to win. It’s on the defensemen and forwards to up their game and find a way to score goals.”

Jonathan Drouin

• “It’s frustrating. The offensive players are supposed to produce a number to help the team win and we haven’t done that in a while. We’re obviously not getting as many chances. It’s not like we’re missing chances, we just aren’t [generating] many chances and that’s frustrating.”
• “[There were] some emotions in warmups. But as the game started and went on, you put that aside and just play hockey.”

Quotes courtesy of NHL.com

Shots are 11-1 Lightning at 7:04 of the first period. Carey Price, Carey Price, Carey Price

— Arpon Basu (@ArponBasu) December 29, 2017

World Junior | Victor Mete on Team Canada Outdoor Practice [Video] https://t.co/gRPeiYyEMT pic.twitter.com/u61dramBza

— AHL Report (@TheAHLReport) December 29, 2017

Crisp but beautiful day at New Era field for the Team Canada practice. @RocketSports pic.twitter.com/bRPrWV0yAg

— AHL Report (@TheAHLReport) December 28, 2017

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