CANADIENS
Montreal

MAPLE LEAFS
Toronto

Lineup

Forward lines and defense pairings 

[one_half]Pacioretty – Drouin – Gallagher
Galchenyuk – McCarron – Shaw
Carr – Holland – Froese
Terry – De la Rose – Mitchell
[/one_half]

[one_half_last]Mete – Weber
Gelinas – Davidson
Morrow – Streit
[/one_half_last]

Goaltenders

Price
Fucale

Scratches

Al Montoya (neck), Charlie Lindgren (lower-body), Andreas Martinsen, Jakub Jerabek, David Schlemko (hand), Tomas Plekanec, Charles Hudon, Artturi Lehkonen, Paul Byron, Phillip Danault, Ales Hemsky, Karl Alzner, Jeff Petry, Jordie Benn

Injuries – prospects

Jeremiah Addison (shoulder), Josh Brook (wrist), Noah Juulsen (foot)

Game Report

For the second game in a row, the Maple Leafs were on the schedule. Different venue, similar result. It is clear that the Canadiens recent domination against the Leafs is over.

This was the Canadiens sixth loss in as many games in the pre-season but may have been the worst. Montreal once again iced an NHL-heavy lineup. At the other end the Leafs did not have one NHL regular in their lineup. So when the Habs jumped out to a 2-0 lead, all seemed well.

Toronto scored four unanswered goals, a 5-on-3 tally and a collection of scores that deflected in off sticks, sometimes Canadiens ones.

The Bergevin makeover on defense is not looking like it has a chance of succeeding. Guess what? Mark Streit is not remotely a replacement for Andrei Markov. Streit, Brandon Davidson, Joe Morrow and Eric Gelinas looked awful against the AHL forwards of the Leafs on Wednesday night.

Was Brett Lernout cut too quickly from camp? Lernout easily outplayed each one of the defensemen above throughout the pre-season. But it would be rather embarrassing for the general manager if none of his recent acquisitions started the season in Montreal.

Victor Mete, once again, didn’t look out of place. It still would be a surprise to see Mete on the Canadiens roster come November, but given the state of the Canadiens defense, he could be around longer than expected. Let’s not forget about Noah Juulsen. Once he returns from injury, Juulsen could be in consideration for a call-up.

Jacob De La Rose has played in almost every pre-season game and has gotten progressively better in each one. It is looking like De la Rose has locked up a fourth line spot. It is unfortunate that the Canadiens have put Mike McCarron in the position that he feels he needs to fight to secure a position on the team.

Just two exhibition games remain prior to the season opener. At this point, there appears to be too many unanswered questions. That said, coach Claude Julien seems to be comfortable with his core players.

~~~

▲     Carey Price, Jacob De La Rose, Victor Mete, Andrew Shaw

▼     Torrey Mitchell, Brandon Davidson, Mark Streit, Joe Morrow, Eric Gelinas

1. Andreas Johnsson  TOR
2. Jonathan Drouin  MTL
3. Curtis McElhinney  TOR

• “There’s frustration of not winning. I hate to lose. But what I have to remember is I have to look at the bigger picture. We’re losing games, but I haven’t seen the core group as the reason we’re losing games. The players we’re counting on have been pretty good.”
• “Some players had a tough night and that left us in a bit of a hole. But I liked Jonathan Drouin’s line, they were good. (Andrew) Shaw came back and had a good night. (Victor) Mete and (Shea) Weber were solid again, and our goalie was making saves whenever he was able to see the puck. So there are some positives there.”
• “We’re just as disappointed in our record as anybody else, even if it doesn’t count. We want to be better and we want to win some games.”

Max Pacioretty

• “You have to stay positive and try to work at getting better.”
• “I thought tonight, our line found each other a bit more. As the game went on, I felt we were able to move our feet, read off each other, make those plays that were based off of feel rather than only seeing.”

Quotes courtesy of NHL.com