CANADIENS
Montreal

HURRICANES
Carolina

Lineup

Forward lines and defense pairings 

[one_half]Byron – Galchenyuk – Radulov
Pacioretty – Plekanec – Gallagher
Hudon – Desharnais – Shaw
Danault – Mitchell – Terry
[/one_half]

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

Goaltenders

Price
Montoya

Scratches

Daniel Carr, Nathan Beaulieu (upper body)

Injured Reserve

Zach Redmond (foot), Artturi Lehkonen (upper body), Brian Flynn (upper body)

Game Report

After the game, the captain spoke about being satisfied with two points. Other Canadiens players followed suit. There was a realization that despite getting the win, the Habs, in general, did not play a good 60-minute game.

Undoubtedly the response will be: “But they are still in first place!”

Indeed, the Canadiens lead the league with 15 wins and 32 points. But twelve of those wins and 25 of the points have come at the Bell Centre with the Habs playing a home-heavy schedule in November. Montreal now heads to the road where they have played just seven games picking up seven points.

The next five games will be played away from the Bell Centre with four of them coming against Western division opponents. It will be more difficult for Michel Therrien to protect his third line centre and get favorable matchups for his third defense pairing.

Carolina owned a significant possession advantage on this night. The Hurricanes were able to cruise down low in the Canadiens zone at will. And when Montreal grabbed the puck in their own end, the Canes were aggressive making break outs difficult.

Carey Price was tested and had to be good. Very good. The only disc that beat him was a rolling puck that was flung into the net by Elias Lindholm. Shea Weber, Alexei Emelin, Andrei Markov and Jeff Petry were solid again.

Max Pacioretty picked up his fifth goal of the season. But more importantly, Max is shooting the puck again ringing a shot off the iron in the third period.  Pacioretty, Tomas Plekanec and Brendan Gallagher aren’t dazzling anyone, but they are playing better as a group and should be left together to work through the slow start.

The Paul Byron experiment was fun but, in the past few games, it has been apparent that the fourth-liner doesn’t have the skill to match Alex Galchenyuk and Alexander Radulov. Artturi Lehkonen will be a welcome addition to the top line when he is ready to return.

To their credit the Canadiens found a way to win this game. But their path is about to get a little tougher as they head out on the road.

~~~

▲     Carey Price, Max Pacioretty, Andrew Shaw, Shea Weber, Alexei Emelin

▼     David Desharnais, Paul Byron, Chris Terry

1.  Andrew Shaw MTL
2.  Justin Faulk  CAR
3.  Max Pacioretty  MTL

Max Pacioretty

• “Two points are two points, but it’s a lot fun to get kind of a greasy one. It wasn’t perfect. They play a similar game to us — tight in the neutral zone, forcing us to make plays and then capitalizing on our mistakes — but as the game went on, we wore them down a bit and got a lucky break.”

Andrew Shaw

• “It’s confidence boost for us, and we’re going to let it snowball into this long trip. It’s tough to be on the road for 12 days, so we’re going to come together and push through and have a great road trip.”

Quotes courtesy of NHL.com