CANADIENS
Montreal

MAPLE LEAFS
Toronto

Fleischmann – Desharnais – Weise
Andrighetto – McCarron – Kassian
Carr – De La Rose – Smith-Pelly
Grégoire – Holloway – Thomas

Tinordi – Pateryn
Barberio – Dietz
Hanley – Ellis

Condon
Tokarski

Game Report

No way to sugar-coat this one. It was a slow, painful game to watch. Even with both teams icing predominately AHL lineups, one might have expected a more energetic effort.

For their part, the Maple Leafs tried to make things more interesting by running Habs goaltender, Mike Condon four times, two each for James van Riemsdyk and Leo Komarov. Condon shook it off and stood tall for the shutout.

Besides Condon, Mike McCarron was the Canadiens best player. McCarron’s mix of skill and toughness was again on display in this game. Of all the young players, McCarron has done the most, by far, to make a case to stay with the big club.

At the opposite end of the spectrum, Devante Smith-Pelly continues to be invisible in the pre-season rapidly relinquishing any hold he had on a position in the lineup.

Despite winning the game in regulation, the two teams went to a mandatory overtime period as required by the NHL. A couple of rules-of-thumb are becoming apparent with respect to 3-on-3 hockey. Teams should not make a line change when they don’t possess the puck. And the coach needs to deploy strong skating players only.

The Canadiens broke both rules in this overtime allowing van Riemsdyk to easily cruise around Dale Weise putting it past Condon.

It is still somewhat concerning that the Canadiens have scored just one goal in three of their four pre-season games. After their offensive struggles last season, it was incumbent on Michel Therrien to revamp his style of play.

The Canadiens are in Quebec City on Monday to meet the Pittsburgh Penguins.

▲     Mike Condon, Michael McCarron, Jarred Tinordi, Greg Pateryn, Tomas Fleischmann, Jacob de la Rose, Darren Dietz

▼     Devante Smith-Pelly

1.  Mike Condon  MTL
2.  James Reimer  TOR
3.  Dale Weise  MTL

• “It was a fun game. It was a tough day flying into Toronto this morning, but the guys responded well. They were unbelievable at bringing the puck out and we got some big blocked shots. I thought the guys played great. It was fun to get the first preseason win.”
• “They were certainly making their net-front presence felt. It was a physical game, but that just gets you into the game more. There weren’t a lot of shots, but when you’re getting hit a little bit, it gets your mind back in the game and you get a little fire in your stomach. It kind of helps.”
• “Carey (Price) is a guy every goalie wants to emulate. He’s a cool character. Watching the game, nothing flusters him. It’s awesome to watch. You don’t even have to talk to him; you can just watch him and the calmness and relaxedness emanates from him and the team feeds off that. It’s definitely something I should work on and every goalie should work on. Over the summer, I did a lot of mental stuff and I’m just trying to think less. That’s the best way to put it. You just try to quiet the mind and go out there and have fun.”