CANADIENS
Montreal

CAPITALS
Washington

Game Recap:

You would be hard-pressed to find two more dissimilar members of a goalie tandem than Carey Price and Dustin Tokarski. While Price is calm, quiet and efficient in goal making the hard saves look easy, Tokarski is just the opposite. In the first period of tonight’s game with the Capitals outshooting the Canadiens 15-2 we were treated to Tokarski scrambling, overplaying the puck but finding ways to make the save. To his credit, the Habs were only down by one goal at the end of the period despite taking about 17 1/2 minutes before registering their first shot on goal. Scoring chances were 9-0 for the Caps.

Tokarski was beaten easily by Nicklas Backstrom to start the shootout on a shot high to the glove side and allowed one more to Eric Fehr that found it’s way between Dustin’s glove and pad. But he fought back making big saves on Evgeny Kuznetsov, Alex Ovechkin and Andre Burakovsky to give Brendan Gallagher the chance to win it for the Habs.

Tomas Plekanec picked up where he left off against the Leafs scoring the Canadiens only goal in regulation.  His line with Galchenyuk seemed to become more dangerous with the addition of Jiri Sekac.  Brendan Gallagher, the eventual hero, was promoted to the top line to try to give them a spark.  P.A. Parenteau, having trouble keeping up with the pace, was bumped down to the third line with Lars Eller and Rene Bourque.

Alex Galchenyuk is already showing that he will have much more of an impact on this edition of the Canadiens. Three memorable plays tonight: Galchenyuk undressing defenseman Matt Niskanen to free himself for a scoring chance; a perfect pass to set up Plekanec’s goal; multiple-move deke for his shootout goal. Check the highlights below!

Brandon Prust gave his team a spark in the second after having slept through the first period. First Prust took on former QMJHL tough guy Liam O’Brien early in the period and then paired off with Brooks Orpik for a word or two. His leadership did seem to awaken his lifeless team.

Not a great night for P.K. Subban which started (but didn’t end) with a horrible giveaway to Troy Brouwer who was only to happy to set up a waiting Burakovsky for his first NHL goal.

Don’t look now but the Canadiens power-play play is 0-for-7 over the past two games. That figure alone is no reason to panic but does raise concerns given that the 2014-15 power-play looks a lot like the one last season that finished 19th in the league.  There continues to be a reluctance by the forwards to go to the net and coach Michel Therrien is loathe to change personnel for players who might be more willing to do so.

The Canadiens with a 2-0 start boarded a bus for the ride to Philadelphia where they will take on a likely ornery Flyers team that has began the season with two road losses.

Plus / Minus

▲   Tomas Plekanec, Dustin Tokarski, Alex Galchenyuk, Brandon Prust, Lars Eller, Manny Malhotra, Andrei Markov

▼   P.K. Subban, P.A. Parenteau

1.  Dustin Tokarski  MTL 
2.  Braden Holtby  WSH
3.  Brooks Orpik  WSH

Coach Michel Therrien

• “We start to play, we start to hustle in the second period. We start to play with more passion. And we start to execute a lot better. Obviously we got dominated in the first period.”
• “We got a lucky break, obviously, but they got a lucky break to tie the game. So at the end it evened up”

Brandon Prust

• “[Dustin Tokarski] made save after save to keep us in it. Certainly we know we have to be better to start games, but he saved us and gave us a chance to win it.”
• “The last two periods, we started to play more our style of game. We were able to create some changes, create some turnovers and it paid off.”

Goaltender Dustin Tokarski

• “It was a situation of back-to-back games on the road, and it was a good test for us after we shook off our legs. They came hard at us. We expected that. They took it to us there, but after that the guys regrouped and showed a lot of character. In the end, we got the win.”

Capitals coach Barry Trotz

• “That’s where we lost the game is in the first,” Trotz said. “We scored the first goal and then we had to back-to-back-to-back power plays and we had a chance to really take the game over. They were sort of hanging on and we really needed that second goal. We couldn’t get it.“