Canadiens Lineup

Tomas Tatar – Phillip Danault – Nick Cousins

Artturi Lehkonen – Max Domi – Nick Suzuki

Ryan Poehling – Jesperi Kotkaniemi – Jordan Weal

Lukas Vejdemo – Nate Thompson – Dale Weise

Ben Chiarot – Shea Weber

Victor Mete – Jeff Petry

Brett Kulak – Cale Fleury

Carey Price – Charlie Lindgren

Christian Folin, Marco Scandella, Riley Barber

Paul Byron, Jonathan Drouin, Matthew Peca, Joel Armia, Brendan Gallagher

Game Report

It is the halfway point in the Canadiens season; Montreal now has 42 points in 41 games. Thinking about playoffs? The math is simple: the Habs are on track for 84 points this season.

If the Canadiens want to play beyond April 4th, they will have to have a winning percentage in the neighbourhood of .659 from here on in. That is the pace that the Washington Capitals set in their first half.

Montreal followed a rollercoaster path in their first 41, ending on the downturn with four straight losses.

Against the Lightning, the Habs fired 39 shots but Jeff Petry was the only one to beat Andrei Vasilevskiy prompting fans and Montreal media to send lavish praise in the direction of the Bolts goaltender. But was it truly deserved?

Undoubtedly, Vasilevskiy and Carey Price both played very well. But despite a shot disparity, it was Price who faced the more difficult workload on this night. Five-on-five, the Lightning had eight high-danger scoring chances to the Habs six.

Half of the Habs’ high-danger scoring chances came from bottom six forwards, with Jesperi Kotkaniemi, Jordan Weal and Lukas Vejdemo each getting one. Max Domi, continuing his strong offensive play, had two.

Trailing by one goal in the final frame, Montreal could not muster a single high-danger scoring chance. Digging a little further, we see that not one player on the Habs top line had a high-danger scoring chance in the game. Phillip Danault, Tomas Tatar and Nick Cousins were shut down.

Using heat maps to reinforce the point, we see that the Canadiens were a perimeter shooting team all night. By contrast, the shot attempts for the Lightning are concentrated around the Montreal goal. Vasilevskiy was a busy goalie, Price was the one more tested.

The Canadiens couldn’t afford to get into another shootout against Tampa, especially with key forwards missing from the lineup. So shots came from the 438 area code as Habs forwards scampered back to help out on defence.

Montreal was ‘effective’ to a degree in tamping down the score. But we also know that Julien was trying to put a positive spin on the effort when he claimed “we were the better team.” His team was not. But the organization doesn’t want fans realizing that the Habs are in danger of missing the playoffs for the fourth time in five years.

Tonight, youth provided the excitement for Bell Centre patrons. Nick Suzuki with Max Domi and Artturi Lehkonen created scoring chances. The duo of Ryan Poehling and Jesperi Kotkaniemi had another strong game. 

So will the Canadiens be buyers or sellers at the trade deadline? Just before tonight’s game, Marc Bergevin did both. First he sent Mike Reilly to Ottawa for a draft pick and agreement to take on their 48th contract in Andrew Sturtz. He will report to the Laval Rocket.

It’s silly to call this move a win as signing Reilly in the off-season, to a two-year deal, was unnecessary and a Bergevin mistake. Reilly played an unremarkable 14 games this season for Montreal. 

A short time later, Bergevin sent a fourth round pick to Buffalo for defenceman Marco Scandella. The Sabres have been trying to trade a surplus defenceman for a forward all season long. Trading a pending unrestricted free agent with a generous contract to Montreal fit the bill for Buffalo GM Jason Botterill.

Scandella has played 31 games this season finding himself as an occasional healthy scratch. At just over 16 minutes per game, Scandella had the lowest average ice-time of Buffalo’s eight defencemen. He has been a third-pairing defenceman for most of his career but was enjoying a better season under Sabres new head coach Ralph Krueger.

The Canadiens will practice at 11:30 am. at Brossard on Friday. They host the Pittsburgh Penguins at the Bell Centre on Saturday.

Plus / Minus

▲  Carey Price, Ryan Poehling, Lukas Vejdemo, Jesperi Kotkaniemi

▼  Phillip Danault, Tomas Tatar