CANADIENS
Montreal

SABRES
Buffalo

Lineup

Forward lines and defense pairings 

[one_half]Pacioretty – Danault – Shaw
Galchenyuk – Drouin – Lehkonen
Byron – Plekanec – Gallagher 
Hudon – De La Rose – Froese
[/one_half]

[one_half_last]Benn – Weber
Alzner – Petry
Mete – Morrow
[/one_half_last]

Goaltenders

Lindgren
Fucale

Scratches

Torrey Mitchell, Brandon Davidson

Injuries

David Schlemko – hand, Ales Hemsky – concussion symptoms, Nikita Scherbak – knee,  Carey Price – lower-body, Al Montoya – concussion

Game Report

Post after post on social media on Saturday night pointed to the Canadiens difficulty in handling one of the leagues’ worst teams. Currently the Sabres are 29th in the NHL, to be precise.

But maybe, just maybe, that’s how the 24th place team in the league plays against one of the worst when their effort level is sub par.

For the better part of the game, particularly the first half, Buffalo outshot, outworked and outplayed the Canadiens. And fans need to disassociate the notion of last year’s Atlantic division champion, the 103-point Montreal Canadiens, with this version of the team. They are markedly different.

It is now the second time in this young season that the Habs required extra time to dispatch of one of the NHL’s bottom feeders. Until the game-winner by Max Pacioretty, there wasn’t a whole lot to cheer about. The Bell Centre faithful were less than amused by this yawn-fest.

Enter Charlie Lindgren.

The quiet, yet confident, third-string goaltender on the Canadiens depth chart has been nothing short of brilliant since his season debut at the United Centre one week ago. In four starts, Lindgren has a 3-1-0 record, giving up just five goals in total. That translates into a 1.24 goals against average, with a .964 save percentage and one shutout.

Lindgren deservedly was named the game’s first star (by TVA.) Did you take notice RDS?

Against the Sabres, Andrew provided the wake up call. Pacioretty delivered the overtime winner. But it was Lindgren who ensured that his team was poised to take the victory by keeping it close throughout the match. 

With Al Montoya out indefinitely with a concussion, it’s clear that Lindgren will factor into the Canadiens fortunes for the foreseeable future.

~~~

▲     Charlie Lindgren, Alex Galchenyuk, Artturi Lehkonen

▼     Phillip Danault, Max Pacioretty, Jeff Petry, Charles Hudon, Jordie Benn, Victor Mete, Byron Froese, Joe Morrow, Jordie Benn.

1. Charlie Lindgren  MTL
2. Max Pacioretty  MTL
3. Chad Johnson  BUF

• “I wasn’t happy at all with the first period and I felt we were on the perimeter too much.”

Max Pacioretty

• “There’s a lot of emotion because we felt that was a huge game for us. We’re climbing our way back into this thing. I know it’s still early, but to get every point now is so, so valuable, knowing that we lost a lot of points earlier in the year. There are a lot of emotions and we like the way our team is trending.”
• “[Charlie Lingren] has been awesome. I keep saying it over and over. You see him making big saves, but you see him battling and working so hard. He deserves all the credit he gets because he puts in the work. When you come in after a bad period, and know that it’s only 1-0 because your goaltender played outstanding, that goes a long way. Not much needs to be said to go out there and play for him.”

Quotes courtesy of NHL.com