CANADIENS
Montreal

SABRES
Buffalo

Lineup

Forward lines and defense pairings 

[one_half]Pacioretty – Galchenyuk – Gallagher
Lehkonen – Plekanec – Radulov
Carr – Desharnais – Shaw
Byron – Mitchell – Danault[/one_half]

[one_half_last]Beaulieu – Weber
Markov – Pateryn
Emelin – Sergachev
[/one_half_last]

Goaltenders

Montoya
Lindgren

Scratches

Brian Flynn, Zach Redmond, Carey Price, Sven Andrighetto

Game Report

It was a workman-like effort tonight; nothing flashy, but an effective performance on the road. The Canadiens came out of the gate quickly dominating the first nine minutes of the game with a shot advantage of 8-1. Brendan Gallagher opened the scoring as he ripped a shot past Robin Lehner.

Montreal did not get a shot on goal for the final 11 minutes of the first period.  It would take them six and a half minutes to register a shot in the second period as the slumber continued. The Sabres filled the void testing Al Montoya with 15 shots in the second. Montoya’s style wasn’t always pretty but he did an excellent job swallowing rebounds.

The Canadiens turned the switch on again in the first half of the third period using their superior speed to press the Sabres. A second goal by Gallagher and one from Andrew Shaw put the game away. Daniel Carr was the bulldog on the play that made the Shaw goal happen.

There was impressive play from newcomers Montoya (30 saves), Shea Weber (plus-3), Artturi Lehkonen (5 shots) and Alexander Radulov (68.75 CF%.) Rookie Mikhail Sergachev looked very nervous in his first NHL game. Sergachev was fortunate to be paired with Alexei Emelin who, in addition to six thundering hits, was solid on the back end.

Nathan Beaulieu had his moments, both good and bad playing 6:18 less than Weber, his defensive partner. Much of the difference was due to special teams duty but also reflective of his play. Beaulieu will be a work-in-progress and is not yet ready to fill Andrei Markov’s role full-time.

The Canadiens engine sputtered for large portions of this game but when they got it running, they easily handled the injury-depleted lineup of the Sabres. A win is a win but as the coach said post-game, there are still things to work on.

~~~

▲     Brendan Gallagher, Al Montoya, Artturi Lehkonen, Alexei Emelin, Shea Weber, Alexander Radulov, Daniel Carr

▼     David Desharnais, Mikhail Sergachev

1. Brendan Gallagher  MTL
2. Shea Weber  MTL
3. Al Montoya MTL

Max Pacioretty

• “I like it as a start. Guys had the right mentality, sticking up for each other. [There were] a lot of selfless plays out there.”
• “Blocked shots, taking hits to make a play. That’s our motto for this team: no matter who you are in the lineup, you have to do whatever it takes to help the team win. This team has the right mindset.”

Brendan Gallagher

• “It’s definitely nice to get a win, but one of the things we learned last year is it’s only a start.”
• “Game by game, you have to have the same focus. There are definitely areas to improve. Obviously there were spurts in the second period where we didn’t play very good hockey and we relied on big Al [Montoya] back there to bail us out and he certainly did a good job. There are areas to improve, but we’re happy with how the team looked.”

Al Montoya

• “My focus is on making that first save, and I think that’s all I really had to do tonight. The defense was great, the penalty kill was great, and the guys really let me see the puck tonight.”

Quotes courtesy of NHL.com