CANADIENS
Montreal

FLAMES
Calgary

Game Notes:

Brutal. No need to sugarcoat this effort, the Canadiens were awful for the second straight game. The Flames outshot the Habs 38-19 and had the vast majority of the Grade A chances.  Montreal went through the motions like a team who expected to be presented the victory on a silver platter based solely on their hot start.  On the other side was a team which displayed hard work and an honest effort.

Two points for Price. Carey Price made 37 saves to get his team beyond regulation time then stoned the Flames shooters on all three of their shots in the shootout.  From dazzling glove saves to game-saving pad stops, Price frustrated the Flames throughout the contest.  His toe save in the shootout on Johnny Gaudreau was outstanding. Price has won his last for starts with a 1.23 goals against average and a .963 save percentage.

Where’s the discipline? Habs fans spent a good portion of the game grumbling about the officiating (again) with good reason.  Perhaps the worst call involved Matt Stajan running into Jarred Tinordi resulting in an ugly knee-on-knee collision.  Stajan left the ice hobbling and Tinordi was penalized for the forward’s pain. That said the Canadiens took far too many penalties.  P.K. Subban was called for interference adding to his league-leading number of minors.  There were dumb penalties throughout the game but the worst offender was P.A. Parenteau called for cross-checking in the third period.

Partly special teams. After going 0-for-3 on Tuesday night, the Canadiens power-play remains without a goal on the road in 21 opportunities. But the penalty-kill was perfect after being deployed seven times.

Playing favorites. While the coach preaches accountability, it never applies to himself and is arbitrarily applied to the team. Max Pacioretty was having a terrible game. When he was called on the off-side on a break, he proceeded to ignore the whistle and slipped it into the Calgary goal as Jonas Hiller looked on. Of course, Max drew a crowd.  When Lars Eller went in to help out his teammate, he was roughed up by a couple of Flames.

Following the face-off, Eller still steaming, gave Kris Russell a shot with his glove as payback.  The Canadiens centre was called for roughing.  Granted it was a dumb penalty but mild on the egregious scale relative to his teammates.  But coach Michel Therrien didn’t pass up the opportunity to bench his whipping boy for the entire third period and overtime.  David Desharnais had taken two dumb penalties against Edmonton and didn’t miss a shift.

When asked about it, Therrien simply said that he didn’t like Eller’s game.  Yet it was thanks to the hard work of Eller and Rene Bourque that the Canadiens scored their only goal in 125 minutes of play in Alberta. Call it selective accountability or looking for a reason to drop the hammer on his favorite target.

Plus / Minus

▲   Carey Price

▼   Max Pacioretty, David Desharnais, P.A. Parenteau, Mike Weaver, P.K. Subban, Michel Therrien

1.  Carey Price  MON 
2.  Mark Giordano  CGY
3.  Johnny Gaudreau  CGY

Coach Michel Therrien

Max Pacioretty

• “It wasn’t the prettiest win, but you’ve got to thank Pricer for that one. He played outstanding. When he plays like that, he gives us hope to compete until the end. We were able to do that. We killed off a lot of good penalties. We know we have to play differently to win, but every win is different, and that one is definitely an ugly one.”
• “You’re obviously thankful to have Carey back there. He gives us that motivation to work a little bit harder. I think that helped us get the two points at the end of the day.”

P.A. Parenteau

• “It’s a big win for the team, and I think Carey was exceptional against the Flames. I think he stole the game for us. There’s no doubt about it, especially at the end of the game when Calgary was on the power play. He’s an excellent goaltender and he’s been doing it for years.”
• “I think there’s no question, everyone that watched that game knows that. That’s what [Price] does. He’s an exceptional goalie. We’ve got to give him a break. We have to play better hockey. Tonight we didn’t play the way we wanted. We come out with two points. We’ve got to address a few of our weaknesses we had [Tuesday].”

Tom Gilbert

• “”We got to see just what an elite goalie Carey is. He made big saves. This game could have been a lot different. You need your best player to be your goalie.”

Flames defenceman Mark Giordano

• “We generated a lot of power plays because of the way we’re moving in skating all night. And a lot of good looks, a lot of good chances; we missed the net on a few, but Price also came up big when they needed it most.”

Flames coach Bob Hartley

• “In my book there’s only one positive, and it’s the two points. I don’t think I can ask for anything more from my guys. What a great game. I think our fans saw a great goalie battle. Just couldn’t capitalize on a couple of scoring chances, and that was the difference in the game.”