Canadiens Lineup

Tomas Tatar – Phillip Danault – Brendan Gallagher

Artturi Lehkonen – Max Domi – Andrew Shaw

Jonathan Drouin – Jesperi Kotkaniemi – Joel Armia

Paul Byron – Nate Thompson – Jordan Weal

Victor Mete – Shea Weber

Brett Kulak – Jeff Petry

Jordie Benn – Christian Folin

Carey Price – Antti Niemi

Charles Hudon, Nicolas Deslauriers, Dale Weise, Matthew Peca, Mike Reilly, Charlie Lindgren

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Game Report

The Canadiens will be in Columbus on Thursday for what many are billing as the game of the year for Montreal. The danger for the Habs, of course, was that they would look beyond Tuesday’s game against Florida. Yet it was very important too.

By the numbers, tonight’s game against the Panthers was the most winnable contest left of the regular season. But Montreal kept their focus.

And despite appearing in an astonishing 24 of the last 25 Canadiens’ games, so did Carey Price. The Canadiens franchise player made brilliant save after brilliant save on the Panthers potent lineup of offensive talent including Vincent Trocheck, Evgenii Dadonov, Jonathan Huberdeau, Mike Hoffman, Frank Vatrano and Aleksander Barkov.

It took some time for Montreal to get it’s own offence in gear but Tomas Tatar brought the Bell Centre to their feet seven minutes into the game. By the first intermission, the Canadiens had a comfortable three goal lead.

The Habs skate stayed firmly pressed on the gas in the second period. Artturi Lehkonen scored his 10th goal of the season. When finally moved into an offensive role by the coaching staff, Lehkonen has responded by playing his best hockey of the year. Lehkonen has scored twice in the last three games.

Despite the grousing about #Habs Lehkonen’s goal droughts, he’s very quietly accumulated 27 points, one shy of the career high he set in his rookie year.

— John Lu (@JohnLuTSNMtl) March 27, 2019

Things are about to get much tougher as Montreal will finish the regular season against the Blue Jackets, Jets, Lightning, Capitals, and Maple Leafs.

The Canadiens have cancelled a practice on Wednesday morning. They will travel to Columbus for Thursday night’s game. It is unclear whether Paul Byron will travel with the team for the two-game road trip. He will be evaluated on Wednesday.

Playoff race: Montreal trails Carolina by one point and leads Columbus by two points. The Blue Jackets and Hurricanes each have a game in hand.

Plus / Minus

▲  Carey Price, Tomas Tatar, Artturi Lehkonen, Andrew Shaw, Brett Kulak, 

▼  Jonathan Drouin, Christian Folin, Joel Armia