CANADIENS
Montreal

CAPITALS
Washington

Lineup

Forward lines and defense pairings: 

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

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

Goaltenders:

Condon
Fucale

Scratches:  
Injured reserve:  Brendan Gallagher, Torrey Mitchell, Carey Price, Alex Semin
Suspended: Zack Kassian

Game Report

A very hot Washington Capitals team came into the Bell Centre on Thursday night and were, for the most part, dominated by the home side. Shots on goal were 35-19 for the Canadiens with a 17-7 advantage in the second period. Scoring chances heavily favored the team in red.

Braden Holtby put on a Carey Price-like performance for the Montreal fans. And at the other end, Mike Condon looked like a backup with limited NHL experience. This isn’t to lay the loss at his feet, but safe to say that Condon would have liked another chance at the first two goals.

That said, the jury is still out on the effectiveness of the new (old) line combinations. Max Pacioretty and Dale Weise showed some chemistry together but the centre, David Desharnais, did not have a good night despite eating up almost 20 minutes of ice time. The changes carried over to the power-play which had an o-for night. Plekanec, Pacioretty et al had been lethal together.

Meanwhile the most dangerous line centred by Alex Galchenyuk was limited to less than 15 minutes of ice-time. Lars Eller scored the Canadiens even-strength goal by driving low to the net, something others were reluctant to do.

The Habs second goal came early in the third period on a short-handed breakaway by Brian Flynn. It was the second break on the same shift by the penalty-killing duo of Flynn and Paul Byron.

Michel Therrien and Marc Bergevin have spoken often about the ability to roll four lines with this version of the Canadiens. That ended on Thursday night. Devante Smith-Pelly and Christian Thomas each played less than six minutes. The centre of the fourth line, Brian Flynn, had his minutes boosted by penalty-killing duties but clearly Montreal was playing with a short bench.

It is obvious that the Canadiens are a very good hockey team. But it is clear, that playing against the league’s best, the absences of Carey Price and Brendan Gallagher are hurt as it did on this night.

The Canadiens will travel to North Carolina on Friday in advance of their Saturday night match against the Hurricanes.

▲     Alex Galchenyuk, Lars Eller, Paul Byron,

▼     Devante Smith-Pelly, Christian Thomas

1. Braden Holtby  WSH
2. Max Pacioretty  MTL
3. T.J. Oshie  WSH

• “We’re disappointed with the result, but we were playing a strong team, and the thing that I appreciated was that we had constant pressure, we controlled the game, and it was tough to play against us. The story of the game, it’s Holtby; he was extraordinary. That is one of the best performances that I’ve seen by a goaltender this season. That’s what made the difference.”

Max Pacioretty

• “I can’t remember the last time we played in the offensive zone that much and created that many opportunities and had that many chances to score. [Holtby’s] a great goalie. He made big saves early, and that gives him the confidence to keep doing that.”
• “You’ve got to give him credit, that goalie. That was a lot of huge saves in key moments of the game. It was frustrating not to be able to put some by him.”

P.K. Subban

• “It seems like it’s been a trend for us this year whenever we get those opportunities late in the game and we find ways to get it done, and [Max Pacioretty] stepped up and scored a big goal.”

Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin

• “They’re a really good team, obviously. They play smart hockey, have good players, but we didn’t play our best game, especially in the second period; I don’t know how many shots we had, maybe two or three, so it’s a good lesson. It’s nice to get two points, but we have to play better, don’t give [Holtby] all the chances that they had.”

Capitals coach Barry Trotz

• “I don’t want to take anything away from Montreal. Montreal came hard, they were fast; we’ve had about three or four days off here and we’re not very good at coming back from long rests. And they just played faster, they won all the races, chances are probably 2 to 1. Holtby gave us a chance to steal that game, and he did. And you’ve seen that in this rink with Carey Price many times too, so that was just our turn, I think.“
• “[Holtby] has been pretty good all year. I mean, tonight, we don’t win that hockey game or even get close to that without his performance. He was the best player on the ice for both teams. He was outstanding.”

Quotes courtesy of NHL.com