CANADIENS
Montreal

RANGERS
New York

Lineup

Forward lines and defense pairings 

[one_half]Pacioretty – Galchenyuk – Radulov
Lehkonen – Plekanec – Andrighetto
Byron – Danault – Shaw
Flynn – Mitchell – McCarron
[/one_half]

[one_half_last]Emelin – Weber
Beaulieu – Petry
Barberio – Redmond
[/one_half_last]

Goaltenders

Price
Montoya

Scratches

Chris Terry, Daniel Carr, Ryan Johnston

Injured Reserve

David Desharnais (knee), Greg Pateryn (ankle), Andrei Markov (lower body)

Game Report

On Saturday, it was announced that, after 146 years, Ringling Bros. And Barnum & Bailey Circus will shut down. With the news out, it appeared that the two teams at the Bell Centre (and the officiating crew) felt a pull to fill the void.

The circus-like atmosphere began with the return of three mainstays, Alex Galchenyuk and Andrew Shaw to the Canadiens lineup and Sara Diamond singing the anthems for the first time this season.

Galchenyuk made an immediate impact with his 10th goal of the season early in the second period. Shaw was also as, early on, he was involved in a disallowed goal, had a fight with J.T. Miller, received a 5-minute major for interference and was tossed with a game misconduct.  

No fewer than three goals in this game were reviewed either triggered by the folks in Toronto or by a coach’s challenge. The Canadiens were on the wrong side of each review.

Setting aside the question of whether Derek Stepan contacted the puck with a high stick, the other two challenges were about goalie interference. Let’s not pretend that a consistent, logical rule can be applied to explain why Phillip Danault’s goal didn’t count when bumped by Shaw and why Rick Nash’s goal did count as Kevin Hayes dragged Carey Price from the crease to the end boards and down the Zamboni tunnel.

Right now the rule is a moving target that can be applied differently by different officials on different nights and even can change between periods of the same game. A bit of sleight of hand by the folks in stripes.

But leave it to the Canadiens to put the smiles back on Bell Centre faithful with three goals in 1:02 on King Henrik. With some of the unhinged members of the Habs fanbase panicking about Carey Price, what should Rangers fans think about Lundqvist who has lost his last seven starts in Montreal.

As far as Price, he was outstanding, once again having to bail out a struggling defensive team. Some will look at the boxscore and make up more nonsense to criticize the four goals allowed. But it is clear that the problems lie elsewhere and could be helped by the return of Andrei Markov and Greg Pateryn.

~~~

▲     Carey Price, Alexei Emelin, Shea Weber, Max Pacioretty, Phillip Danault, Paul Byron, Zach Redmond

▼     Nathan Beaulieu, Andrew Shaw

1.  Max Pacioretty  MTL
2.  Phillip Danault  MTL
3.  Derek Stepan  NYR

• “There was a lot of emotion. The fans really created an extraordinary atmosphere, a playoff-like atmosphere. It gave our players extra energy. They showed a lot of character to come back in this game. We never give up. We always think we can win, even if we’re down by a goal. We want to continue playing and eventually we’re hoping to be rewarded. It happens sometimes.”
• “I don’t agree with the decision by the referee. Here’s a guy who was hit in the head three weeks ago and suffered a concussion, and there wasn’t a penalty on the play. He finished his check a little bit late, hit the player’s chest and was given five minutes for it. I didn’t agree with the decision.”

Max Pacioretty

• “There’s not really a sense of panic going into the third period when we know our game is decent, but we know that everyone’s on board and everyone is going to do what it takes to win the game. I think we deserved the bounces we got in the third. It was like the building exploded [when we scored those three goals]. It was just a lot of fun and a lot of great energy from the group. We’ve got to build off that in Detroit.”

Quotes courtesy of NHL.com