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RECAP | Rangers – Canadiens: Domi Says Lack of Killer Instinct Sunk Habs

Montreal Canadiens vs New York Rangers Game Recap: Habs Line-up, Score, Statistics, Highlights, Post-game Interviews, NHL Three-Stars

FINAL | Game 23, Home Game 12 | Saturday November 23, 2019
Bell Centre, Montreal, QC

CANADIENS

Montreal

5-6

RANGERS

New York

Canadiens Lineup

Forward lines

Tomas Tatar – Phillip Danault – Brendan Gallagher

Artturi Lehkonen – Max Domi – Nick Suzuki 

Charles Hudon – Jesperi Kotkaniemi – Joel Armia

Nick Cousins – Nate Thompson – Jordan Weal

Defence pairings

Ben Chiarot – Shea Weber

Victor Mete – Jeff Petry

Mike Reilly – Cale Fleury

Goaltenders

Carey Price – Keith Kinkaid

Scratches

Christian Folin, Brett Kulak

Injuries

Paul Byron, Jonathan Drouin

Game Report

After taking a 4-0 lead, the Canadiens suffered a humiliating collapse to the New York Rangers. Since a 5-2 win over the Washington Capitals on November 15th, Montreal has lost four straight games. Three of those contests were at home and every opponent is ranked in the bottom-10 of the league.

Currently, the Senators, Rangers, Blue Jackets and Devils are 23rd, 26th, 27th and 29th in the league. This is the soft part of the Canadiens schedule and the team is playing soft.

So, Habs fans are understandably snarly. They aren’t interested in reasons for the poor play. Raw emotion isn’t easily appeased by rational explanations. They simply want someone to blame.

So why not blame the goalie? He makes a lot of money. Yes, it’s irrational. But more than that, it’s lazy and dumb.

In the first 25 minutes of the game, while the Canadiens were building a 4-0 lead, they were not dominating. Throughout that time, Carey Price had to be outstanding. Montreal was sloppy with the puck, regularly giving up odd man rushes to the Rangers. 

Claude Julien pointed the finger at his forwards, indicating that they were simply spectators at the visitors exited their zone. The Montreal backcheck took the night off.

But the defence itself wasn’t having a banner night either.

Players failing to clear the puck was an issue but it wasn’t the only one. Ranger forwards were allowed to crowd the crease picking up goals via tips and screens. And on several occasions the Habs defensive sea parted, leaving an inviting gap for Rangers to drive to the net. 

The Canadiens have had a rough eight days. A more difficult part of the schedule is set to arrive in just over a week.

Still looking for one person to blame? You would be closer to the root of the issues if you aim your sights on Marc Bergevin.

Bergevin is the architect. He is the person who believes that depth should be gathered around the fourth line. Rather than directly address a glaring deficiency at 1 LD, he chose the committee approach. And Bergevin failed to choose adequate backup goaltending.

So don’t get drawn into focusing on the minutiae. It’s not injuries; Paul Byron and Jonathan Drouin were not producing prior to their surgeries. It’s not about which  forward position Max Domi plays; although he should always be paired with Artturi Lehkonen.

If you are a frustrated Habs fan, you have an issue with the general manager.

The Canadiens host the Boston Bruins on Tuesday night at the Bell Centre. The Bruins presently are the second place team in the NHL with a record of 15-3-5.

Plus / Minus

▲  Artturi Lehkonen, Max Domi, Nick Suzuki, Shea Weber, Carey Price

▼  Nate Thompson, Jeff Petry, Victor Mete, Jesperi Kotkaniemi, Charles Hudon, Phillip Danault, Mike Reilly, power-play

The Numbers

 Game Statistics 
CANADIENS   RANGERS
43 Shots 34
50 Face-off % 50
0-for-5 Power Play 0-for-3
6 Penalty Minutes 10
19 Hits 29
61 Corsi For 42
 Scoring Summary
 FINAL 1 2 3 OT SO T
 Canadiens (11-7-5) 3 1 1 5
 Rangers (10-9-2) 0 3 3 6
Scorers Goalies
  • MTL: Domi (5), Lehkonen (4), Domi (6), Weber (7), Lehkonen (5)
  • NYR: Chytil (7), Buchnevich (4), Lemieux (2), Panarin (12), Lemieux (3)-SHG, Trouba (3)
  • MTL: Price (L) 10-6-2
  • NYR: Georgiev (W) 5-4-1

Stars of the Game

 NHL Official Three Stars
  1. Brendan Lemieux  NYR
  2. Artemi Panarin  NYR
  3. Max Domi  MTL

Watch

 Video Highlights 
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What Did They Say?

 Post-game Quotes
Claude Julien  
  • “We have to tighten up defensively. We’re not hard enough. We don’t kill plays. We weren’t good backchecking at all tonight. We played against a team that was hungry, even if they played [on Friday night]. It’s another reason why it’s unacceptable. After three games without a win, we should have been hungry. We shouldn’t let these things happen. It’s unacceptable… The urgency to score isn’t bad. The urgency to defend isn’t good enough. That’s where we’ve got to get better.”

Max Domi

  • “In this league, when you have a team down like that, you gotta, I don’t want to say it, but step on their throats. That’s the analogy we use. Put them out of it completely. And we weren’t able to do that tonight. That can’t happen. We know that within our locker room.”

Brendan Gallagher
  • “That can’t happen. We know within this locker room that you’ve got to be able to play a full 60 in this League if you want to win. It’s a good hockey team over there. They stuck with it. We knew they were going to hang around, and they did. When you’ve got a team down like that, you have to put them out of it completely. We weren’t able to do that tonight. We’ve got be better and we know that, and we will be better.”
Shea Weber
  • “The only thing we can do is learn from it and never let it happen again. We have to make sure, to a man, that we have better efforts. That’s where you find out what kind of group you have. Anyone can play well when things are going right. Right now things aren’t going right for us. Now we find out who we can count on in tough times. There’s a lot of belief in this group, but it’s important for us to show up and be accountable for your teammates. I think this is a really good opportunity for us to show that.”

Quotes courtesy of NHL.com

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