CANADIENS
Montreal

OILERS
Edmonton

Lineup

Forward lines and defense pairings: 

[one_half]Galchenyuk – Plekanec – Gallagher
Pacioretty – Desharnais – Weise
Fleischmann – Eller – Andrighetto
Flynn – Mitchell – Smith-Pelly[/one_half]

[one_half_last]Markov- Subban
Emelin – Petry
Barberio – Gilbert[/one_half_last]

Goaltenders:

Scrivens
Condon

Scratches: Greg Pateryn, Nathan Beaulieu
Injured reserve:  Carey Price, Paul Byron, Daniel Carr, Lucas Lessio

Game Report

It was a fun afternoon of hockey at the Bell Centre on Super Bowl weekend. Families enjoyed plenty of goals, seeing the Canadiens employ their speed and even were able to appreciate the dazzle of a 19-year-old phenom who was playing for the opposition.

Is this the beginning of a dramatic turnaround?  Are the Canadiens back on track for a playoff push?

Probably not.

There were three keys to today’s impressive win. The Canadiens withstood an early push from Edmonton’s young forwards getting a big save from Ben Scrivens. The Canadiens turned the momentum with an energized performance by Tomas Plekanec, assisting on the opening goal by Brendan Gallagher. And the home side benefited from a dreadful defensive game by the Oilers.

A four point explosion for Plekanec led the offense supported by Gallagher who was relentless on the forecheck all game. Gallagher had a goal and an assist. The third member of the line, Alex Galchenyuk, had an assist on four shots on goal and was a plus-3.

When the Canadiens met the Oilers in Edmonton back in October, they also got out to an early 3-0 lead. But in that game the Oilers scored four times in the final 21 minutes including two goals by Leon Draisaitl. Lars Eller excelled at the task of shutting down Draisaitl on Saturday afternoon with a superb performance. Draisaitl was kept off the scoresheet with a minus-2 rating and just 33 per cent on faceoffs.

Eller not only was dominant in the defensive zone but picked up the game-winning goal.

It was not a good day for the so-called top line of the Canadiens.  Combined, David Desharnais, Max Pacioretty and Dale Weise were minus-3. It’s long overdue for the Canadiens top sniper to be separated from a marginal NHL’er and a fourth line fan favorite.

The Canadiens are back on the Bell Centre ice on Sunday afternoon to face the Carolina Hurricanes.

~~~

▲      Tomas Plekanec, Lars Eller, Brendan Gallagher, Ben Scrivens, P.K. Subban, Andrei Markov, Alex Galchenyuk

▼      David Desharnais, Max Pacioretty, Dale Weise, Brian Flynn, Jeff Petry, Alexei Emelin

1. Tomas Plekanec  MTL
2. Ben Scrivens  MTL
3. P.K. Subban  MTL

• “To be on top of his game, [Lars Eller] has gotta make sure he’s really solid defensively. I trust Plekanec, I even trust Desharnais, at times. For that line, Lars’ line was really good today.”

Tomas Plekanec

• “It was one of those nights where you touch the puck and it goes in.“

Ben Scrivens

• “I’m not bitter about getting traded. I guess if there’s any bitterness it’s how I perceive myself getting buried, you know, to get sent down without a visa and spin your tires for three weeks and then get spot duty.”
•  “I played 57 games in the League last year and then to kind of have that go against you, I mean, it’s a new management group, at the end of the day it’s a business, but I’ve been traded before. There’s no bitterness based on being traded. I’m still friends with guys on the team, some of them, and bitterness comes with how I was treated on the way out, which I guess leaves a sour taste in your mouth, but what can you do?”

P.K. Subban

• “[Connor McDavid] has got a bag of tricks. You don’t know which trick he’s going to use, so you just try to play him hard, play him tough, but he’s one of those players that can make those types of plays, so it doesn’t surprise me.”

Oilers forward Connor McDavid

• “Obviously they have some very good defensemen and P.K.’s one of the best in the world. It’s good to get a chance to match up against him. He played very well.”

Oilers coach Todd McLellan

• “That’s as bad as we’ve been in a long time. To a man. Usually you get five, six, seven guys that give each other a pretty good night. Tonight we even lacked that. From the skilled players, the workers, the positional players on down it was a pretty flat night. We didn’t skate well, we didn’t pass, our structure was poor. … We got what we deserved.”

Quotes courtesy of NHL.com