CANADIENS
Montreal

PENGUINS
Pittsburgh

Lineup

Forward lines and defense pairings: 

[one_half]Pacioretty – Plekanec – Gallagher
Eller – Galchenyuk – Smith-Pelly
Fleischmann – Desharnais – Weise
Byron – Mitchell – Flynn[/one_half]

[one_half_last]Markov – Subban
Emelin – Petry
Beaulieu – Gilbert[/one_half_last]

Goaltenders:

Condon
Tokarski

Scratches: Jarred Tinordi, Alex Semin, Greg Pateryn
Injured reserve:  Carey Price
Suspended: Zack Kassian

Game Report

Despite the loss, this was a very good game. Bringing together the Canadiens, first in the league and the Penguins, winners of eight of their last ten, made for a very entertaining hockey game.

For Habs fans, the second period was undoubtedly the favorite. Montreal scored twice on goals by Brendan Gallagher and Brian Flynn and dominated possession with a 13-1 advantage in shots.

Mike Condon had to be sharp in the first and third periods where he faced 31 shots total. Condon played well but it’s no slight against the young goaltender to mention that the Canadiens could have used the best player in the world in goal on this night.

Condon made some big saves but his rebound control, game management and lack of puck moving skills were evident. It’s also fair to say that he looked like a rookie on the shootout goals by David Perron and Sidney Crosby.

That said, Condon outplayed his counterpart at the other end of the ice. Marc-Andre Fleury looked very ordinary on the goals he allowed to Andrei Markov and Brian Flynn.

Patric Hornqvist scored the tying goal for Pittsburgh. He also had seven shots on goal and was in the grill of Condon all night. We witnessed the feisty side of the young backup as he took to pushing back against Pens who were trying to rattle him.

After the game, Michel Therrien said that the team had things to work on. Indeed.

High-danger scoring chances were 15-9 for the Penguins. Nathan Beaulieu and Tom Gilbert were the defensive pairing with the worst attempted shot differential. The David Desharnais line ended the game with the worst Corsi in 5-on-5 play.

Devante Smith-Pelly is not an answer for the second line. Smith-Pelly had just one shot on goal in the game. The weak one-timer came after some good work by Lars Eller and Alex Galchenyuk.

Could we finally see Alex Semin return to the lineup after his lengthy exile to the press box? It may also be a good time to insert Jarred Tinordi or Greg Pateryn in the lineup on the third pairing. It would not be a surprise to see some changes when the Canadiens take on the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday at the Bell Centre.

▲     P.K. Subban, Max Pacioretty, Brendan Gallagher, Tomas Plekanec, Andrei Markov, Alexei Emelin, Mike Condon, Jeff Petry

▼      Tom Gilbert, Nathan Beaulieu

1. Sidney Crosby   PIT
2. Patric Hornqvist   PIT
3. P.K. Subban  MTL

• “It was an exciting game, but we have things to work on.“

Mike Condon

• “It was a good game. [The Penguins] have a lot of skill. They have a lot of speed. We dominated in the second and I thought we played well in the third. A couple bad bounces there and a tough break with the overtime penalty, but that’s hockey.“

Max Pacioretty

• “We could tell they were frustrated in the second because we were playing the right way. We’re a tough team to play against when we get pucks deep, but if we’re a step behind, then our breakout is much easier than if we come in guns blazing. So that little extra step behind and being a little lackadaisical in the third, maybe sitting back on our heels a little too much, but maybe that might be the difference tonight.”

P.K. Subban

• “At one point, the shots were 30-15 and we were taking it to them. We have to realize that everybody’s gunning for us and we’re going to have to play a full 60 minutes to beat any team, and going into the third period we had the score that we wanted. We didn’t get the result out of it. We have to try to put teams away, but things happen.”

Penguins coach Mike Johnston

• “Comebacks are important, especially against a team like Montreal. They’re very steady. They just have a straight line as they play the game from start to finish. That’s why they’ve been so good.”
• “I’m happy about the win, but I didn’t like our second period. I thought that second period stands out to me. We just cannot play that way. We have to get that out of our game.”

Quotes courtesy of NHL.com