CANADIENS
Montreal

CANUCKS
Vancouver

Game Notes:

Must-win.  The pre-game ceremony for Jean Beliveau was simple, poignant and perfect. When the attention turned to Elise Beliveau, the arena was bursting with emotion.  That meant an enormous amount of pressure on the players. They just had to find a way to win.  And they did.

Not on my watch. Just 1:04 into the game Vancouver’s Nick Bonino almost completely changed the atmosphere and, most likely, result of this game.  Carey Price made a save that only the best goaltender in the world could make. With the pressure of the moment weighing on the team, it is unlikely that the Canadiens could have recovered from such an early blow.  Price didn’t face a large number of shots but made three key saves for the victory.

Top line. The Canadiens No.1 line looked like a first line with Alex Galchenyuk, Max Pacioretty and Brendan Gallagher combining for 10 of the Canadiens 25 shots. The trio also directed another 16 shots at the net and scored two of the three goals.  A concern coming into the game, Galchenyuk was 62 per cent at the faceoff dot.  This was very impressive coming against the Sedins.

Captain. For a team without a captain and their leader in goal, it felt like Tomas Plekanec fulfilled that role in this game.  He scored the game winner and was solid with his two young linemates, Sven Andrighetto and Jiri Sekac.

Mute Mario. During the second intermission RDS’ Mario Tremblay felt the need to unfairly bash P.K. Subban over the Canucks second period shorthanded goal. Subban having already been out for 1:10 of the Canadiens power-play didn’t have the wind to chase down the Canucks after a turnover.  David Desharnais, fresh off the bench did, but with below-average footspeed was weak on the backcheck allowing his man, Derek Dorsett to score the shortie.  Dorsett confirmed it during an intermission interview saying that he noticed Desharnais beside him and then “turned on the jets.” It is truly sad that Desharnais-zealots like Tremblay cannot acknowledge the fact that their beloved centreman has lost his place on the team.

Defence. The top pairing played a lot and almost always when Daniel and Henrik Sedin were on the ice. Andrei Markov and P.K. Subban helped to limit the Sedins to one shot combined.  Tom Gilbert and Sergei Gonchar also had strong games.

Game puck. Just 1:31 into the game, the first puck went into the crowd near Section 102, Row EE, Seat 1, the empty chair with Beliveau’s No. 4 jersey on the back of it. A fan who caught the puck gave it to Elise Beliveau, her first of two on the night. At the end of the game, Tomas Plekanec grabbed the game puck and as he left the ice handed it to Dr. David Mulder with instructions to deliver it to Mrs. Beliveau.

Postpone judgment. Some might be quick to declare the new lines an unqualified success.  It was one of the most complete victories of the season.  But the Canadiens were skating with adrenaline-fuelled purpose on Tuesday night.  They were facing a very good but tired Canucks  team who were playing their seventh game of a two-week road trip.  It would be prudent to assess the results of the changes in a less emotionally-charged environment.

Plus / Minus

▲   Tomas Plekanec, Max Pacioretty, Brendan Gallagher, Alex Galchenyuk, Carey Price, Andrei Markov, Tom Gilbert, P.K. Subban

▼   David Desharnais

1.  Tomas Plekanec  MTL
2.  Alex Galchenyuk  MTL
3.  Ryan Miller  VAN

• “It’s a classy move from Tomas Plekanec, and tonight we deserved to win. It was a close game, and we had to battle all through the game, and it was a great gesture from Tomas to give the (game) puck to Mrs. Beliveau.”

Tomas Plekanec

• “It’s been an unbelievable night. Obviously it was the most emotional night I’ve ever experienced in Montreal. I had chills all over the 10 minutes that was the ceremony, and it was unbelievable.”

Max Pacioretty

• “I couldn’t stop looking in that direction. After the tribute I looked over there and Mrs. Beliveau blew us a kiss and said, ‘Thank you,’ you could see her saying that, and obviously it’s tough to fight it back, but I feel at the end of the night she was so appreciative of the response that both the fans, the players, the management by putting that on, I feel like she was really appreciative of the night and that’s what we were aiming for and that’s what we talked about in the room before the game, so we were happy we were able to deliver.”

Brendan Gallagher

• “I think we wanted to come out and honor Mr. Béliveau’s legacy the best we could. That’s not an easy task. Everyone just worked hard for 60 minutes and tried to find a way to win a hockey game. It was pretty easy to find motivation and energy, and it was an enjoyable win for us.”
• “When the ceremony first started and you were watching the clips of Mr. Béliveau, you just had a big smile on your face. Then, they went to Mrs. Béliveau and I was pretty close to cracking up looking at her. She kind of started fist-pumping to the crowd and the smile was back on my face. It was really emotional.”
• “I don’t think we’ve had that much energy as a group all year. We were just feeding off the situation. We wanted to represent Mr. Béliveau the best we could. That was a little bit more important than just Game 30 of the season.”

Canucks goalie Ryan Miller

• “I thought it was an amazing tribute. With his wife, I actually kind of got a little bit choked up right there. You have such a bond with someone who’s your spouse, someone who walked beside him like that, then to accept that standing ovation and you could see on her face how the relationship must have meant so much. I just kind of got choked up.”

Canucks coach Willie Desjardins

• “I didn’t think we played bad in any of the (road) games. Montreal’s got a pretty good hockey team. You come in here, it’s a big night, and they’ve got lots of guys that can play hard.”