CANADIENS
Montreal

RANGERS
New York

Lineup

Forward lines and defense pairings: 

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

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

Goaltenders:

Price
Condon

Scratches: Greg Pateryn, Jarred Tinordi, Paul Byron
Injured reserve:
Suspended: Zack Kassian

Game Report

There’s an argument that has sprung up in the past few weeks that Carey Price gets more than his fair share of credit for the Canadiens success. It’s silly and pointless but it persists. But then Price puts in a sensational performance like he did like the Rangers to blow that theory out of the water.

Price came into the game with a dominant record against the Rangers. In the past three regular seasons Price has owned the Blueshirts with unbelievable stats: a record of 6-1-0 with a  0.43 goals against average and a .986 save percentage. Yet after this game, those numbers will improve.

At the other end of the ice is the goalie they call King Henrik. But Lundqvist has not been treated like royalty at the Bell Centre where he owns a malodorous 4-6-2 record with a 3.81 goals against average and a .878 save percentage.

That was not the Henrik Lundqvist who greeted the Canadiens for their 2015-16 home opener.

Early on referees Dean Morton and Brad Watson wanted to make the game all about them. When the shackles were finally removed, it was a classic goaltending battle with grade A scoring chances at both ends. Lundqvist had a hot glove and Price delivered a number of jaw-dropping saves particularly on Rick Nash, Derek Stepan and Stepan again. Price was also the Canadiens best penalty-killer with the Rangers enjoying five power-play opportunities, including a 5-on-3 advantage for 1:42.

There was a lot of discussion prior to the season whether Price could duplicate what he accomplished in 2014-15. While it’s too early to judge just five games into the year, Price is equaling his goaltending performance while being even more effective as an extra defenseman with tape-to-tape passes helping the team to better exit the zone.

Price also delivered the most memorable hit of the night when he dropped Rangers forward Chris Kreider. Some are calling it a revenge hit for a reckless collision Kreider had with Price on May 17, 2014 in the Eastern Conference Final putting the Canadiens goaltender out for the season. At the time Habs winger Brandon Prust called Kreider’s hit “accidentally on purpose.”

When asked about hitting Kreider in this game, Price said “I didn’t even know it was him.” Given that Price stood over the fallen Rangers forward and that the goaltender is acutely aware of everything happening on the ice, we can surmise that he simply wanted to diffuse any controversy. When Coach Therrien was asked about the hit, he said “[Carey Price] is a solid guy.”

Tomas Plekanec hasn’t had a bad game this season and was rewarded with an empty-net goal when Max Pacioretty did the captainly thing letting his centre get the credit.  Tomas Fleischmann scored his second game-winner in as many games.  Fleischmann even showed some emotion when scoring on home ice for the first time saying, “I don’t really celebrate but I did this time. 20,000 people get you going.”

Alex Galchenyuk and Lars Eller are beasts in the offensive zone. The Galchenyuk line had 15 shot attempts this night. Eller led the team with five hits. Galchenyuk was 58 percent at the faceoff dot.

Coach Therrien is again doing his best to protect his favorite pupil. David Desharnais had a decent game with two assists in 12:12 of icetime. Desharnais’ minutes were extremely sheltered with 100 per cent of his starts in the offensive zone and strangely, without taking a single faceoff. In this dome and against third line competition, Desharnais seems to have found a comfortable home.

Alex Semin hasn’t yet figured out how to consistently contribute to this team. Semin watched on more than one occasion as Devante Smith-Pelly took his spot on the right side of Galchenyuk and Eller. Smith-Pelly, after a disappointing training camp has ramped up his effort level and was rewarded in this game with extra shifts.

Overall this is a lineup with a more balanced attack. It may not yet have all the right pieces or the pieces in the right places but this team will be tough to play against as long as the distributed scoring continues.

After Price, the Rangers players mentioned the Canadiens speed. It is a weapon that they will need to defeat teams who will be at the top of the Eastern conference.

It is hard to believe that in their 100-plus year history, no other team has done what this Canadiens team did tonight. Does that mean that they are destined for a Cup final this year? Too soon to say. But at this early stage, they are a treat to watch. It does feel different.

The Canadiens now wait to welcome the Detroit Red Wings for a Saturday night clash at the Bell Centre.

▲▲ Carey Price

▲     Tomas Plekanec, Andrei Markov, Lars Eller, Tomas Fleischmann

▼      Alex Semin

1. Carey Price  MTL
2. David Desharnais  MTL
3. Henrik Lundqvist  NYR

• “The way we played, we were a tough team to play against. We stuck to our structure, and the work ethic of those guys is right where you want it. We did a lot of good things. Those guys gave us a good show. Carey (Price) was phenomenal again. (Henrik) Lundqvist was really, really good. He kept them in the game. We saw a really quality hockey game, a game with intensity. That was our home opener. The guys really did a great job again.“

Max Pacioretty

• “Everybody’s pitching in, everybody’s having fun and everyone feels good about themselves. People ask me about leadership and how I feel about that; that’s the biggest thing that I’m happy about right now, that everybody feels good about their game and everybody’s got confidence right now.“
• “That was definitely good play in the crease on both ends. Carey (Price) came out on top. He was a wall. That was amazing to watch. But, you’ve got to tip your hat to Lundqvist because he played a very good game as well. We traded a bit too many chances with them, but they had their fair share and Pricer came up huge for us, obviously. It’s nice to see everyone pitch in and make a difference.”

Carey Price

• “We have a pretty confident group of guys here. We’ve always felt confident in our abilities and it’s paying off.”
• “Whenever you play a really good team, you know you have to bring your best effort to win. Once again, the Rangers played very well. That’s an excellent hockey club over there. We have a lot of respect for that team and their abilities. They probably feel the same about us. In the future, I’m sure there’ll be a lot more great hockey games between our teams.”

Rangers forward Rick Nash

• “It’s two world class goalies going at it like that, I don’t think I’ve ever played in a game where both goalies have played that well.”

Rangers goaltender Henrik Lundqvist

• “I knew I couldn’t give up too many goals to have a chance to win here. I’ve kind of lost the count now of how many times we’ve been shut out in this building. It’s a combination of how they play as a team, but obviously (Carey) Price played a big part in that. For some reason, he likes to play us. But you just have to give him a lot of credit, the way he’s been very consistent against us, especially in this building. I knew going into this game we all needed a really strong performance for us to have a chance to win, but it wasn’t enough.“

Rangers coach Alain Vigneault

• “They schooled us. You have to give the Canadiens credit; they gave us a lesson in every area of the game.“