CANADIENS
Montreal

PENGUINS
Pittsburgh

Lineup

Forward lines and defense pairings 

[one_half]Pacioretty – Galchenyuk – Gallagher
Lehkonen – Plekanec – Radulov
Byron – Desharnais – Shaw
Danault – Mitchell – Flynn[/one_half]

[one_half_last]Beaulieu – Weber
Markov – Petry
Emelin – Sergachev
[/one_half_last]

Goaltenders

Montoya
Lindgren

Scratches

Daniel Carr, Zach Redmond, Greg Pateryn

Injured Reserve

Carey Price

Game Report

For the first two games of the season, Habs fans were less than impressed with the new-look Canadiens. Despite taking long stretches of the first two games off, Montreal came away with three of a possible four points. The pair of road games were against teams not likely to make the playoffs.

Tonight was a different story: the defending Stanley Cup champions were guests at the Bell Centre. It is clear that a one-period effort by the Canadiens would not cut it. To their delight, Habs fans were treated to an outstanding performance by the home squad.

The much-maligned captain channeled the emotion of the opening ceremonies into the fastest goal every scored by a Hab in a home-opener. Max Pacioretty went on to be the best player on the ice in this game with a goal and an assist on six shots.

Alexander Radulov was not the possession-king that he was in the first two contests but he scored a beautiful goal-scorer’s goal early in the third period. Radulov’s control, vision and patience was a beautiful thing to watch.

On the back-end Shea Weber was dominant once again while Jeff Petry supplied the offense. Petry had two assists on Tuesday night to go along with his two goals against Ottawa.

Sports can be cruel sometimes. It must have been tough for Penguins backup Mike Condon to watch adoring Bell Centre fans show their approval of Al Montoya and his game. It was Montoya’s sixth career shutout as he continues his audition for the starting role of an expansion team.

No one would ever confuse Montoya’s goaltending style with Carey Price, but Al is getting the job done. He plays with confidence and he doesn’t allow bad rebounds.

Lastly, it is amusing to look back at what the coach was talking about most coming into this game. Michel Therrien said that the main reason for inserting Brian Flynn in the lineup over Daniel Carr was that Flynn would have an impact on faceoffs. Flynn went 2-for-5 at the dot.

Therrien also spoke about Mikhail Sergachev’s family travelling all the way from a small Russian town to watch their son. Therrien benched Sergachev for much of the third period resulting in the rookie defenceman playing a mere 8:30 in this game.

~~~

▲     Max Pacioretty, Al Montoya, Jeff Petry, Shea Weber

▼

1. Al Montoya MTL
2. Max Pacioretty MTL
3. David Desharnais MTL

• “[Max Pacioretty] had a really, really good game. I believe our players fed off Patch’s leadership tonight. All game he was involved in the game, he did some great plays and he had a terrific hockey game tonight.”

Al Montoya

• On Habs defencemen: “This group talks more than I’m used to, even if some of them don’t speak English very well.”
• “[The pre-game ceremony] was awesome. I’ve been a part of a couple of ceremonies, but that must have been one of the most special ones. This crowd outdid themselves. Hats off to them. It really sparked the team. I think it might have fired up the other team, too.”

Shea Weber

• “I’m not changing my game. I’m playing the same.”
• “I don’t like to smile on the ice a whole lot. I think most people know that by now.”

Quotes courtesy of NHL.com