CANADIENS
Montreal

PANTHERS
Florida

Lineup

Forward lines and defense pairings 

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

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

Goaltenders

Price
Niemi

Scratches

Jacob De La Rose, Brett Lernout, Nicolas Deslauriers

Injuries

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

Game Report by Chris G

Contrary to the last two games, the Habs started off the game well and played a solid twenty minutes in the first period. It looked like Claude Julien’s new line combinations created opportunities as the Canadiens had scoring chances and put a lot of players in front of Panthers goalie, James Reimer. The Panthers had a couple of scoring chances especially during a power play but Carey Price was in a good form.

Connor Brickley opened the scoring four minutes into the second period as he blew one by Carey Price’s blocker side. It is a shot that the Habs goalie should have stopped in my opinion. Jordie Benn didn’t look good on that goal as he spun away from the puck on that play and Jeff Petry was in front of the net covering no one. Only real scoring chance in the period was Jonathan Drouin with a backhander after cutting to the net that was stopped by the Panthers goaltender.

The Panthers scored 8:11 into the third period as Jeff Petry took himself out of the play to apply a body check which led to a 2 on 1 and Vincent Trocheck was able to score.

The Canadiens were unable to generate any offence once again as they lose their fourth consecutive game on this road trip. They have scored a total of three goals during their losing streak. This was the 23rd time this season that they scored two goals or less in a game and the sixth time that they were shutout.

~~~

▲   Carey Price, Charles Hudon, Jakub Jerabek

▼  Jordie Benn, Karl Alzner, Jeff Petry

1. James Reimer  FLA
2. Connor Brickley  FLA
3. Vincent Trochek FLA

• “I honestly know that those guys in there, the will and the desire was there. Having said that, again, you don’t score goals, you don’t win hockey games.”
• “We had net-front presence tonight. That was there. We didn’t get enough shots probably from the slot area, from those danger areas.”
• “There’s a lot of guys that are squeezing their sticks right now and are feeling the pressure and because of that you’re seeing a lot of things that are frustrating to watch for everybody.”

Max Pacioretty

• “We’re all just trying to support each other and work hard every day to get out of it. I’m sure no one in this room has really had to deal with this adversity. I sure haven’t in my career. It would do no good to be negative about it. Yeah, I’m [ticked] off and I want results just as much as the next person. More. I take pride in the results I’ve had in my career. I can’t speak for everyone else, but many frustrations kind of creep in and it’s definitely there, but I can’t let it take over my game and my mindset.”
• “The execution wasn’t perfect, but last practice was really the first time we worked on that and honed in on how the defensemen can support the rush, and how we can play as a unit of five in the offensive zone. It led to some chances tonight, but our execution has to be better to get more chances.”

Quotes courtesy of NHL.com