CANADIENS
Montreal

1-4

CAPITALS
Washington

Lineup

Forward lines and defense pairings 

[one_half]Pacioretty – Danault – Radulov
Lehkonen – Plekanec – Byron
Flynn – Mitchell – Andrighetto
Farnham – McCarron – Scherbak
[/one_half]

[one_half_last]Emelin – Weber
Beaulieu – Petry
Barberio – Johnston
[/one_half_last]

Goaltenders

Price
Montoya

Scratches

Daniel Carr, Chris Terry, Zach Redmond

Injured Reserve

Alex Galchenyuk (knee), David Desharnais (knee), Greg Pateryn (ankle), Andrew Shaw (concussion), Andrei Markov (lower body)

Game Report

On Saturday night, the Canadiens were outplayed and outcoached but benefited from terrible Leafs goaltending. Tonight, Braden Holtby and Carey Price each played strong games. So when the Habs were outplayed and outcoached, the Capitals won.

It is that simple.

Barry Trotz, along with Mike Babcock who the Canadiens faced on Saturday, are elite NHL head coaches. The Canadiens haven’t had one of the league’s best bench bosses since 1979. Incredible, isn’t it?

So, with Michel Therrien intent on deploying Shea Weber and Alexei Emelin against Alex Ovechkin and the Capitals top line, coach Trotz simply said ‘fine.’ Evgeny Kuznetsov played more than four minutes longer than Ovechkin in 5-on-5 play with the Capitals second line leaving the pairing of Nathan Beaulieu and Jeff Petry at a combined minus-4 for the night.

Even third line centre Lars Eller logged more icetime than Ovechkin in this game. Yet Alex scored on the power-play and picked up two assists to walk away with first star honours. Effective bench management, putting players in the best position to succeed and making adjustments to the opposition were some of the keys to the Capitals win on this night.

In addition, it was another one of those games where the Canadiens did not seem ready to play. Tomas Plekanec said that the Habs did not have their skating legs and committed too many turnovers in the neutral zone which fed the Capitals attack. Coach Therrien said that his team was not sharp in the first game after a long road trip.

Therrien did compliment Tomas Plekanec and his mates saying that the line was the Canadiens best. Indeed it was. But when you have a fourth line centre masquerading on the first line against the top defensive team in the league, it’s going to be hard to generate offence. And that played out true to form tonight.

The Canadiens injuries are an issue when they play the top teams but that issue is exacerbated when coaching is unable to compensate and when there is a lack of depth on the roster.

~~~

▲     Carey Price, Shea Weber, Alexei Emelin, Tomas Plekanec, Artturi Lehkonen, Paul Byron

▼     Mark Barberio, Ryan Johnston, Phillip Danault, Bobby Farnham, Torrey Mitchell

1.  Alex Ovechkin  WSH
2.  Evgeny Kuznetsov  WSH
3.  Braden Holtby  WSH

• “I can’t explain it exactly, but the first game back from a long road trip is usually tough. [Washington] played a solid game, and we didn’t. It’s that simple.”
• “It’s hard to say why, but it happens often. Not all the time, but often. The adrenaline isn’t the same, and I saw that we weren’t executing early on. When we play like that, we’re obviously not at our best.”
• “Plekanec’s line was our best line on the ice. They skated well, they made plays, and they attacked the net. They were a positive to take away from tonight.”

Jeff Petry

• “I don’t think they played any differently this time. I think it was us who fed their forecheck early on in the game, and turned pucks over while letting them dictate the pace.”

Tomas Plekanec

• “We made too many mistakes. They played a good game, but we made it way too easy for them to come out at us.”
• “Thanks to Pricey, we were in it until the end, but we’ve got to bounce back next game.”

Quotes courtesy of NHL.com

Petry is having a nice evening. So is Price. That's my list after 2 periods. #Habs lucky to be down only 1-0

— Douglas Gelevan (@DGelevan) January 10, 2017

Tomas Plekanec pulls out his 9 iron and chips the puck over Holtby tying it at 1 & Snapping an eight game goal-less drought #Habs @AllHabs pic.twitter.com/RYVW1DTM6H

— Shayne Pasquino (@shaynepasquino) January 10, 2017

Classless bunch at the Bell Centre tonight.. booing Lars Eller!?

Really?#Habs #gohabsgo #habsnation pic.twitter.com/52r7X63ajl

— Mourad (@MouradB) January 10, 2017

Follow @AllHabs on Twitter