CANADIENS
Montreal

FLAMES
Calgary

Lineup

Forward lines and defense pairings 

[one_half]Galchenyuk – De La Rose – Byron
Pacioretty – Danault – Shaw
Hudon – Plekanec – Gallagher 
Deslauriers – Froese – Carr
[/one_half]

[one_half_last]Benn – Weber
Alzner – Petry
Jerabek – Schlemko 
[/one_half_last]

Goaltenders

Price
Niemi

Scratches

Victor Mete, Joe Morrow

Injuries

Ales Hemsky – concussion, Nikita Scherbak – knee,  Al Montoya – concussion, Artturi Lehkonen – lower-body, Jonathan Drouin – flu

Game Report

Ripe for the picking. That was the way many described the visitors on Thursday night.

The Flames were on the back half of games on consecutive nights having taken the Leafs to a shootout before losing 2-1 on Wednesday night. Calgary was going with David Rittich in goal, making his second start of the season. Those starts added to a relief appearance and one start last season comprise Rittich’s complete NHL resume.

And then there is the intimidation factor of the venerable Bell Centre for visiting teams. The so-called most knowledgable fans in the game seated below all of those Stanley Cup banners should make this a very difficult place to play a road game.  

So why didn’t the game play out according to script?

Simply, the Flames outworked the Canadiens. Calgary was better on the boards, they were first to more pucks and they drove to the net. For the most part, the Flames were able to impose their will in the Canadiens zone.

But the Flames aren’t the Blues. The Canadiens are also a middle of the road team. So Montreal had its moments and were able to stay in the game when occasionally straying from their perimeter attack.

Max Pacioretty and Daniel Carr were the few Canadiens who were willing to regularly take the play down low. With Jonathan Drouin on the shelf and Alex Galchenyuk tethered to the bench, the Canadiens offence did not generate enough quality scoring chances despite Ridditch giving up a steady stream of rebounds.

The game energy came in spurts. With an inconsistent performance from both teams, this game felt like a match between two non-playoff squads.

~~~

▲    Daniel Carr, Carey Price, Max Pacioretty

▼    Alex Galchenyuk, Phillip Danault, Jakub Jerabek

1. Sean Monahan  CGY
2. Daniel Carr  MTL
3. Micheal Ferland  CGY

• “A player has to do more than score goals – that’s for everybody. In a tie game, [Alex Galchenyuk] wasn’t very good tonight along the boards so that’s the decision I took (to bench him).”

Max Pacioretty

• “It could’ve gone either way. If we find a way to score in overtime or the shootout, we’re feeling great about ourselves. We can’t let that break the good stuff we’ve been doing. We’ve been playing very well as of late and we have to keep going that way.”
• “[Daniel Carr] is flying out there. He’s playing great, he’s making plays, he’s playing with composure. Hopefully, he keeps making us look bad and stays at that point-per-game clip. Guys like joking around with him about that, but he’s been playing awesome and he’s helped us a lot.”

Charles Hudon

• “I’ve known [Daniel Carr] since Hamilton, we played on the same line. He would always do that. A good goal for the team, a good goal for him. He works so hard, he works to get the puck pretty much anywhere on the ice, so it’s just positives.”

Quotes courtesy of NHL.com