CANADIENS
Montreal

COYOTES
Arizona

Lineup

Forward lines and defense pairings: 

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

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

Goaltenders:

Condon
Tokarski

Scratches: Jarred Tinordi, Alex Semin
Injured reserve:  Carey Price (lower-body), Alexei Emelin (lower-body)
Suspended: Zack Kassian

Game Report

There was a curious game during the first month of the season played primarily by the mainstream media: finding new ways of describing just how little the Canadiens were relying on Carey Price for their early success. They argued that because the team was winning by two or three goals per night, they weren’t leaning on the best player in the world.  But perhaps Price was playing a bigger part in the way the team was able to play than many were willing to admit.

Folks were equally off-base in their assessment of Michael Condon. With his 7-2-2 record this season, the Canadiens rookie has exceeded expectations. But early on, some were touting that Condon had ‘better stats’ than Price. One broadcaster said the only difference between the two goaltenders was that only jersey number ended in a ‘9’, the other a ‘1’.

Despite the winning record, it was clear that rebound control was an issue for Condon. He sometimes overplays the puck losing the net. The rookie hasn’t yet learned to effectively fight through screens. And Condon is not very proficient at playing the puck.  While Condon had a good start to the season, his save percentage is under .860 for the past four games.

Against the Coyotes, Condon would have liked to have two of three goals back. The first Arizona goal can be dropped in the lap of P.K. Subban. The Canadiens star defender made an ill-advised pinch, something from which the team could have recovered. But there was also a Subban giveaway.

The unforgivable part was that Subban stopped skating when the Coyotes broke up the ice. As he coasted back, Subban watched as Martin Hanzal, left all alone, tapped in the first goal of the game.

Goaltending was not the only issue this night.  Masking the team’s warts is one of the many ways that Price contributes to the team’s success.

With the Canadiens spotting the opposition a 3-0 lead for the third straight game, it just wasn’t in the cards to mount another comeback. The Habs were successful at the beginning of the season by getting out to early leads and making opponents chase them. In this game, Arizona defended well after establishing the comfortable lead.

The Canadiens are in Brooklyn on Friday night to meet the Islanders.

▲     Max Pacioretty, Dale Weise, Andrei Markov, P.K. Subban, Jeff Petry

▼     Mike Condon, Tom Gilbert, Devante Smith-Pelly

1. Mike Smith   ARI
2. Brendan Gallagher   MTL
3. Oliver Ekman-Larsson  ARI

• Michel Therrien announced that Carey Price will play Friday in Brooklyn against the Islanders. It will be Price’s first start since he sustained a lower-body injury October 29th in Edmonton. Dustin Tokarski was returned to the St. John’s IceCaps.
• It was also announced that Torrey Mitchell will not make the trip to New York.

Mike Condon

• “I’m used to playing many games in a row in the minors, and it’s no different up here. It’s just if you make a mistake, guys bury it. So the second goal was my fault, and it’s that one goal that comes back to haunt you.“

Brendan Gallagher

• “They’re just too good. You can’t continually get behind 3-0 and expect to come back.”

Dale Weise

• “I just thought they came out, they had a couple of breaks early, and I thought we took over the game. They just defended well. We had some chances on the power play [when] if we had scored on it would have changed the game, but we didn’t. We were just out of sync on our power play.”
• “It’s just a couple of bad bounces. We just get behind the eight-ball early. They scored two goals on their first five shots. They got them pretty quick. You want to come out and have a good start, but when you get down like that, it takes a while to get things rolling again.”
• “You won’t see teams coming back from three goals down a lot like we did last game. Let’s be honest, it doesn’t happen very often. When you keep spotting teams leads like that, it’s very mentally draining trying to get back into it.”

Arizona coach Dave Tippett

• “Our team game was much better [Thursday] than it was last game. We spent a couple of days talking about it so I’m glad the players responded and they played a pretty solid game. We made it a little hard on ourselves at the end there.”
• “I thought the second period, we had some great chances, we could have pushed it to 4-0, and then we had a turnover that led to a goal against late in the second and then took a penalty to give some momentum, but I thought we hung in there in the third. I give our guys credit.”
• “I liked our speed. We played the game fast. That’s the team we’re trying to become.”

Quotes courtesy of NHL.com