CANADIENS
Montreal

SENATORS
Ottawa

Game Notes:

No. 1 line. The new top line on your Montreal Canadiens has speed, skill, making pretty plays with quick puck movement and precision passing.  Who are these guys?  It’s remarkable when you consider that the only change made by Michel Therrien was adding a 20-year-old to replace the teacher’s pet.  It’s becoming painfully obvious just how much a struggling David Desharnais was holding this line back.

Deja vu.  The Canadiens toughest matchup this week was obviously against the league-leading Ducks. Bookending that game were contests against two teams in the bottom third of the standings. Both were one-goal games late in the third period. Against Carolina, the Canadiens scored at 16:41 and 17:50 for the 4-1 win. Against Ottawa, goals at the 16:50 and 17:34 marks by the Habs gave them another 4-1 victory.  Interesting, both teams kept the match close by combating the Canadiens’ speed with a physical game. Montreal was massively outhit 68-23 in those two games.

Holiday greeting. Carey Price has done it all for the Canadiens this season. Price has provided steady leadership and has been the best player, by far. So after allowing his first softie of the season early in the game to the Ottawa Senators in game, he reportedly wished the opposition bench a ‘Merry Christmas’ then came back to stone them the rest of the way.

Where’s the hate? The Canadiens – Senators rivalry will never rise to the level of the Bruins or Leafs.  Proximity certainly plays a part with both fanbases able to travel for road games.  And Eric Gryba‘s vicious hit on Lars Eller in the 2013 playoffs ramped up feelings.  But there was far less emotion in Saturday’s game given that the Senators are now without Chris Neil and Paul MacLean.

Plus / Minus

▲    Carey Price, Andrei Markov, Brendan Gallagher, Max Pacioretty, Alex Galchenyuk, Lars Eller, Tomas Plekanec, P.K. Subban

▼    Tom Gilbert, David Desharnais

1.  Carey Price   MTL
2.  Alex Galchenyuk  MTL
3.  Brendan Gallagher  MTL

• “We play in a really tough division. A lot of teams got a lot of success, so we knew it was important to get four wins out of five. So you’ve got to look at the big picture, and we’re satisfied.”
• “The players know their responsibilities towards the team. They take a lot of pride in staying true to those responsibilities.”
• “The line changes are something that you have to do from time to time. Credit goes to the guys because they’ve really taken ownership of the decisions they make. They don’t ask questions and they compete. That’s what’s important.”

Max Pacioretty

• “We’re all passers and we’re all shooters on our line.  We don’t have anyone with designated roles. That’s what we like about our line. We know that anyone can get in on the forecheck. We all battle down low. We all can be the guy in front of the net trying to take away the goalies’ eyes. I think it’s really hard right now for the opposition to get a good read on our line knowing that we all can fill in any given spot.”
• “It’s going well right now. We know we can be even better and keep expanding our game, but we like how we’ve started off as a unit.”

Alex Galchenyuk

• “[Max Pacioretty] and [Alexei Emelin] made a great play and I was just in the spot, and I had to tap it in; Christmas for me.”
• “As a team, when we get the lead, we’re very comfortable. We have a great goaltender in the back, good defensemen, and we know that if we kill the pressure and don’t change our game, it will be tough for the other team to stop us.”

Brendan Gallagher

• “I had the easy part on the goal. [Max Pacioretty] made a great play to [Alex Galchenyuk] and then I knew [Galchenyuk] was giving it back to me, and he found a small hole, so it was pretty easy and a great play by them.”

Senators coach Dave Cameron

• “We generated absolutely nothing off of the power play, not even momentum, and we knew they were going to get wind with a big (penalty) kill. And too many men on the ice, and now we started chasing; we opened up a little bit.”