CANADIENS
Montreal

FLYERS
Philadelphia

Lineup

Forward lines and defense pairings 

[one_half]Lehkonen – Galchenyuk – Radulov
Pacioretty – Plekanec – Gallagher
Byron – Desharnais – Shaw
Danault – Mitchell – Flynn[/one_half]

[one_half_last]Emelin – Weber
Markov – Petry
Beaulieu – Pateryn
[/one_half_last]

Goaltenders

Price
Montoya

Scratches

Daniel Carr, Joel Hanley

Injured Reserve

Zach Redmond

Game Report

Giving up an average of forty shots per game is not the recipe for winning very many games. Unless the team is being backstopped by Carey Price. But once again, the Canadiens are playing a style of hockey that relies far too heavily on their goaltending.

The system coached by Michel Therrien is often mislabeled as a defensive one, The Canadiens are 29th in the league in shots allowed so far this season. They are 27th in the NHL in shots on goal. All of this while defensive breakdowns are rather obvious.

Nathan Beaulieu and Greg Pateryn looked completely outmatched against the Flyers as did the Habs fourth line. Each unit gave up loads of chances to the visitors. And the penalty-killers are at a laughable 40 per cent efficiency surrendering six goals in the last two games.

Shots on goal were 38-17 for the Flyers, 15-3 alone in the second period. Shots attempts were 70-45 for Philadelphia.

The Canadiens managed to score five goals but that’s less a credit to their offense and more as a result of very weak goaltending by Michal Neuvirth.

The best player on the ice for either team was Carey Price. The only reason the Canadiens were able to bank two points was Carey Price.

So when the responsibility for selecting the official NHL three stars was handed to TVA for this game what did they do? Their first star was Phillip Danault.

Danault has played well this season along with the fourth line, but not on this night. Unconscionably Price was left off the 3-star selection completely.

The third star went to Claude Giroux. Consensus among the Philly media was the Giroux was far from the best Flyer in this game. But Giroux did fit a pre-determined agenda by TVA, as did Danault. Their post-game on-ice interview with the first star was much easier with the French-speaking Danault.

The loss in that game began the worst December record in franchise history. From that point to the end of the season, the Canadiens owned the worst record in the NHL.

Danault did make it to the scoresheet, but his goal was a tap-in facilitated by the hard work of Torrey Mitchell on the boards. That positive contribution was completely outweighed by being a defensive liability in his own zone.

Flyers reporter David Strehle called Carey Price “the obvious #1 star.”

For their three star selection, Mitch Melnick, radio host for TSN 690, called the folks at TVA the “three blind mice.”

 In the scheme of things, is the three star selection a big deal? As Melnick said, if you are going to do it at all, do it right. But if broadcasts like TVA and RDS are willing to discard the truth and merit in their choosing of stars, shouldn’t we also question the validity of their reporting in general?

~~~

▲     Carey Price, Tomas Plekanec, Andrei Markov

▼     Nathan Beaulieu, Greg Pateryn

1. Phillip Danault  MTL
2. Andrei Markov  MTL
3. Claude Giroux  PHI

• “It was very emotional to watch Simon announce the starting lineup to the guys. He’s a fighter and a winner.”

Tomas Plekanec

• “It was a strong moment for all of us. It was a boost for us, and I’m happy we gave those kids a win.”

Quotes courtesy of NHL.com