CANADIENS
Montreal

1-0

CAPITALS
Washington

Game Notes:

Carey Hart. The shutout streak is just under 152 minutes and counting. Carey Price has just one regulation loss in his last 12 starts.  Price WAS the Canadiens penalty-kill today and was spectacular in the second period with the Habs being outshot 17-6.  With the shutout Price is now tied for fifth with Patrick Roy on the Canadiens all-time shutout list.  There’s no question that Carey is the most underpaid player in the league.

Plek leads.  When it’s time to consider awards, let’s not forget Tomas Plekanec for the Selke.  Plekanec continues to take on the opponents best line but this season contributing in a major way to the Canadiens offense.  The way he slowed at the blue line in overtime and then skating hard along the boards gave time for Max Pacioretty to catch the play and setup for the winning goal as well creating space between himself and Brooks Orpik. It was brilliant.  And Plekanec was is a feisty mood delivering a solid hip check to Tom Wilson after being on the receiving end of a cheap shot from the same player.

Under pressure. Max Pacioretty may have miss empty nets and he struggles on breakaways, but he is a clutch performer. Pacioretty scored his fifth game-winning goal to tie Lars Eller for the team lead.  Max had seven shots on goal to lead the team in just over 22 minutes of icetime.

Misdirection.  It’s easy to know when David Desharnais is having a dreadful game (which he did again today) as RDS ramps up its criticism of Lars Eller.  Contrary to their unjustified attacks, Eller had very good possession numbers against a big, strong Capitals team.  At 5-on-5, Eller led all Canadiens forwards with an 18 Corsi for total and with P.K. Subban, lead all Canadiens players with a 13 Fenwick for total. With Montreal being on the penalty-kill for an extended stretch in the second period Eller slowed the play on a short-handed 3-on-1 rush ensuring that he didn’t set up a dangerous Capitals rush with a missed shot.

Making the most.  Christian Thomas was given just 8:14 of icetime but surprisingly had six shots on goal, tied with Tomas Plekanec for second best on the team.  This was in contrast to Brandon Prust, David Desharnais, Brendan Gallagher, Manny Malhotra, Michael Bournival, and Dale Weise who didn’t have a shot all game. Thomas played with Lars Eller and Jiri Sekac who combined for 12 shots, second only to the Plekanec line with 13 shots on goal.

Plus / Minus

▲▲  Carey Price

▲    Andrei Markov, Max Pacioretty, Tomas Plekanec, P.K. Subban, Alexei Emelin, Christian Thomas, Lars Eller

▼    Brendan Gallagher, Alex Galchenyuk, David Desharnais, Michael Bournival, Dale Weise

1.  Carey Price  MTL
2.  Braden Holtby  WSH
3.  Max Pacioretty  MTL

• “One of our best players happens to be our goalie. If you make a list of all the teams in the NHL, there are some that it’s going to be their forwards. If they don’t play up to their abilities, then their team is going to be in trouble. Your best players have to be your best players and Carey (Price) is a part of that. He helps us enormously to win games.”
• “A great play by (Tomas) Plekanec to put the puck at the net, but you look [at] (Max) Pacioretty, he gave it a second effort then got rewarded.”

Tomas Plekanec

• “I saw [Max Pacioretty] coming. That’s why I held on to the puck as long as possible, to give him time to get to the crease. I’m happy with the way things went. It was a long shift, but I felt we had one last chance to go for it. That’s why we tried. I just saw the opportunity with all the open ice in front of me.”

Max Pacioretty

• “That last shift going into overtime probably gave us a bit of momentum going into the extra frame, and it was a lot of fun playing like that. It’s two games in a row where it’s a playoff-style mentality and we’re trying to get a head start on playing like that and it’s been successful so far.”
• “[Carey Price] is amazing. He’s so humble. He just comes to the rink and does his job. A guy like that doesn’t have to open his mouth once to be the best leader on this team. The way he shows up, the way he handles himself, the way he carries himself, he’s the backbone of this team.”
• “We left [Price] out to dry during spurts of that game, but at the end of the day we played a pretty good grinding game. We’re trying to play well in front of him defensively. We know our goals are going to come once we get a few bounces. We’re thankful we have him back there every game.”

Capitals goaltender Braden Holtby

• “Obviously, I think everyone knows what Carey (Price) is capable of and he showed it tonight.”

Capitals head coach Barry Trotz

• “You get the right the whistles at the right times, you can leave him out there. [Alex Ovechkin] is a beast when it comes to being on the ice. I thought [Saturday] he was a big man. That first period, he did that lateral cut and it was like three bowling pins bounced off him. There’s not too many guys that can do that.”
• “I thought both goaltenders played really good tonight. I thought we played a real solid road game. We just couldn’t find the back of the net.”