CANADIENS
Montreal

SENATORS
Ottawa

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 – Petry
Emelin – Pateryn
[/one_half_last]

Goaltenders

Montoya
Lindgren

Scratches

Brian Flynn, Zach Redmond, Mikhail Sergachev

Injured Reserve

Carey Price

Game Report

So, the good news is that the Canadiens have started the season with three points in two road games backstopped by their backup goaltender. The bad news is that the Habs have been no shows in about two-thirds of the periods played so far.  That’s not a good sign when the opposition has been two teams expected to be at the bottom of the Atlantic Division standings with the Maple Leafs.

For the first two games, the popular term used to describe the play of the Canadiens is “flat.” That can be interpreted several different ways including uninspired, unprepared or simply stuck playing a system that doesn’t match their skill level. The coach’s answer in Ottawa was the same as his answer to any issue: scrambling the lines.

This meant dropping Artturi Lehkonen to the fourth line for no particular reason. Lehkonen has played well in the first two games of his NHL career picking up his first goal on Saturday night. That also meant that utility-man Paul Byron was promoted to the top-6 not having done anything to earn that honour. Byron had a terrible game with a minus-3 ranking and a pitiful 29.17 Corsi for percentage.

No one is happier to have Shea Weber in Montreal than Nathan Beaulieu. In the first two games Beaulieu has looked bewildered,  clearly not ready for a place on the top pairing but thankful to be bailed out regularly by the ‘man mountain.’ Against the Senators, Weber led the Canadiens in ice-time, shots and hits.

Jeff Petry returned to the lineup and promptly scored two goals. Al Montoya was, once again, unconventional but steady. Alexander Radulov has been the best player every time he’s been on the ice in the first two games. The Canadiens penalty-killers remain perfect on the season after an especially heroic 5-on-3 kill.

Michel Therrien continues to confirm why he is ranked one of the worst coaches in the NHL. His team is unprepared and unmotivated playing an antiquated system. His adjustments are predictable and ineffective. His reliance on playing favorites rather rewarding merit is hurting this team.

The Canadiens have been out hit, outplayed and have been dismal at the face-off dot in the first two games (missing Lars Eller?) The competition ramps up next week with the Penguins in town on Tuesday for the Canadiens home opener. It’s time for the Habs to resolve their issues before the bad habits start to stick.

~~~

▲     Shea Weber, Alexander Radulov, Artturi Lehkonen

▼     David Desharnais, Paul Byron, Torrey Mitchell, Phillip Danault

1. Erik Karlsson  OTT
2. Jeff Petry  MTL
3. Ryan Dzingel  OTT

• “Jeff (Petry) is an important part of our club. It was nice to see him score two goals. Even though the power play was over [on his second goal], we see it as a power play goal.”
• “I thought he was solid. He hadn’t played in a really long time and he looked really sharp tonight.”

Jeff Petry

• “I think we had a slow start in the first. We came in here in between periods and we said that we’ve just got to win a period and chip away at it.”
• “It showed that we could come back and battle back in the first test of the year. It’s good to see the fight to come back and at least take it to overtime.”

Quotes courtesy of NHL.com