CANADIENS
Montreal

SENATORS
Ottawa

Lineup

Forward lines and defense pairings 

[one_half]Pacioretty – Danault – Radulov
Byron – Plekanec – Gallagher
Galchenyuk – Shaw – Lehkonen
King – McCarron – Mitchell
[/one_half]

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

Goaltenders

Price
Montoya

Scratches

Brandon Davidson, Brian Flynn, Steve Ott, Andreas Martinsen, Nikita Nesterov

Injured Reserve

Game Report

The Canadiens did not play a superior game on Saturday night. The Senators had a clear advantage in shots and possession. But, there were key areas where the Habs were dominant.

Goaltending. Carey Price continues to be Mr. Saturday night. With 31 saves for a .969 save percentage, Price was dominant once again in a crucial game for the Canadiens. Price shut the door other than the obligatory goal to Jean-Gabriel Pageau.

Special teams. With a sputtering offense in February and March, it is crucial that the Canadiens get their power-play humming before the playoffs commence. Going 2-for-4 with the man advantage is obviously an outstanding night. But the look of the power-play — good motion, puck movement — was impressive tonight. The penalty-killers were perfect.

Defense. Andrei Markov is having a superb season. He was solid prior to being paired with Shea Weber and has been even better since the arrival of Claude Julien. Markov was kept to a manageable 21:35 and supplied the offence with two goals and an assist. Weber scored his 17th goal of the season and was fierce in his own zone. Alexei Emelin and Jeff Petry were solid.

Faceoffs. After a rather dreadful week in the faceoff circle, Canadiens centres responded to Julien’s call that they needed to be better. The coach spoke about the need to start with the puck rather than chase the play. Tomas Plekanec led the way going 70 per cent at the dot.

Physicality. The Canadiens are not a team that is intimidated anymore. Shea Weber, Jordie Benn, Michael McCarron, Andrew Shaw and Alexei Emelin punished the Senators tonight and stood up for their teammates when the nonsense started. Dion Phaneuf and Alex Burrows treaded carefully.

The Canadiens were a team with problems after losses to Detroit and Carolina. Claude Julien declared himself “a fixer.” It worked on this night as the Habs played to their strengths.

Montreal took three games from the Senators when it mattered. And the Senators were so demoralized that they left the ice with time remaining on the clock.. 1.8 seconds to be exact.

~~~

▲     Carey Price, Andrei Markov, Shea Weber, Tomas Plekanec, Alexei Emelin  

▼     Nathan Beaulieu, Jordie Benn, Torrey Mitchell, Michael McCarron, Dwight King

1.  Andrei Markov  MTL
2.  Carey Price  MTL
3.  Shea Weber  MTL

• “I don’t panic, I fix things. I don’t panic”

Carey Price

• “Obviously [Andrei Markov] is best-known for his passing ability and vision, but he’s got a very underrated shot as well. He can really rip it.”

Shea Weber

• “Obviously [Andrei Markov’s] intelligence is up there with a lot of guys in the league. Plus, he has the ability to make plays with that intelligence, so he’s the full package, and has been for a long time now.”
• “[Markov] is a great passer. Every game, it seems like he finds somebody — whether it’s to spark an odd-man rush, or he’s just sliding it over for a good shot. He’s a good partner to have, and I definitely enjoy getting passes from him.”

Andrei Markov

• “We knew it was going to be a tough one — the last couple of games we didn’t play good enough — so we brought our focus back and played a full 60 minutes tonight. It was a good team win.”
• “We showed a lot of character in these [three games against Ottawa]. I think we played three pretty solid games. We played a full 60 minutes — and even 65 minutes on one night. Now we have to keep our focus at the same level and continue working harder.”

Quotes courtesy of NHL.com