CANADIENS
Montreal

MAPLE LEAFS
Toronto

Lineup

Forward lines and defense pairings: 

[one_half]Pacioretty – Plekanec – Gallagher
Galchenyuk – Desharnais – Weise
Fleischmann – Eller – Carr
Flynn – Mitchell – Smith-Pelly [/one_half]

[one_half_last]Markov- Subban
Emelin – Petry
Beaulieu – Barberio[/one_half_last]

Goaltenders:

Condon
Scrivens

Scratches: Greg Pateryn, Jacob De la Rose
Injured reserve:  Carey Price, Tom Gilbert

Game Report

The Canadiens got the two points. A desperately needed two points.

Just repeat that over and over to mask how they went about securing the win. It wasn’t pretty.  But to call this game a must-win is an understatement. They desperately needed a win before the last wobbly wheel completely fell off the cart.

Knowing that they were on thin-ice and that the coach had been given carte-blanche, the Habs came out strong thoroughly dominating the Leafs in the opening frame. Shot attempts were 27-5 for Montreal in the first 17 minutes of the period.  And for a change, the Canadiens held a lead going into the first intermission up by two.

Now let’s take this impressive performance with a grain of salt. The Maple Leafs came into this game having lost six of their previous seven games. And it seemed that the ceremony honouring Dave Keon, Turk Broda and Tim Horton didn’t nothing to energize them with the spirits of the past.

The Canadiens might have put the game out of reach with better goal line technology.  Daniel Carr was convinced that he scored. I believe he was right. And no, sadly, 4K didn’t help.

But puck luck aside, the Canadiens could have helped themselves by deploying more than a pop-gun power-play. The Leafs had more chances in their two opportunities than the Habs had in four.

Montreal’s domination lasted only 20 minutes with the less-talented but harder-working Leafs clawing their way back into the game in the final two periods. Goaltending wasn’t the primary fault but didn’t help as Mike Condon gave up two goals on just 15 shots. Condon redeemed himself in the overtime making a game-saving stop and was one better than James Reimer in the shootout.

Lars Eller was the best player on the ice for either team. He likely would have been named first star even without the game deciding goal in the shootout. Since his move back to the middle, Eller has been the Canadiens strongest centre.

This was the first of seven ‘should-win’ games as their schedule softens up considerably. The Canadiens must bank as many points as possible to improve their chances of securing a playoff spot.

The Canadiens are off to Columbus for the first game of a home-and-home series with the Blue Jackets.

~~~

▲    Lars Eller, Daniel Carr, Alexei Emelin

▼    Torrey Mitchell, Devante Smith-Pelly, Brian Flynn, P.K. Subban, power-play

1. Lars Eller  MTL
2. Morgan Rielly  TOR
3. Nazem Kadri  TOR

• “I thought [Lars Eller] probably played his best game of the season.”

Max Pacioretty

• “We felt like that was what was lacking: the ability to make plays in situations under pressure. We don’t want to force plays, and it’s a very thin line. You don’t want to give them the puck when you don’t have to, but we know we have the skill in this room to make the plays when they’re there. It felt like for the most part, guys were doing that and it starts on the back end. Instead of just wrapping it around the boards, guys were patient. Protecting the puck and using your partner instead of just rimming it around the boards is something we worked on this week and hopefully we can build some confidence playing that way.“

Lars Eller

• “You have to like [being called on for the shootout.] It’s what you live for as an athlete. Of course I was a bit nervous, but you have to be a little bit nervous when you are put in that situation. It’s fun. It’s where you want to be.“
• “I can’t tell you how often in the last while we have been on the wrong side of those things that make the difference in the outcome of the game. Finally we were on the right side of that today and I think we deserve it.”

Mike Condon

• “We had a lot of trouble in the first period of games the past few weeks, so getting that first goal and then getting another one gave us a lot of confidence in the third period. They came out and kind of took it to us in the second period and started chipping away at our lead, but we stuck with it and I am very happy with the outcome.”

Maple Leafs coach Mike Babcock

• “We gave the players the day off (Friday). We won’t be doing that again.”

Quotes courtesy of NHL.com