CANADIENS
Montreal

SHARKS
San Jose

Lineup

Forward lines and defense pairings: 

[one_half]Pacioretty – Plekanec – Byron
Eller – Galchenyuk – Weise
Fleischmann – Desharnais – Carr
Flynn – Mitchell – Andrighetto[/one_half]

[one_half_last]Markov – Subban
Emelin – Petry
Gilbert – Beaulieu[/one_half_last]

Goaltenders:

Tokarski
Condon

Scratches:  Jarred Tinordi, Greg Pateryn, Charles Hudon
Injured reserve:  Brendan Gallagher, Carey Price, Devante Smith-Pelly

Game Report

Like many, I was surprised that Dustin Tokarski got a second start in a row on Saturday against the Senators. Tokarski got the win despite making us nervous at times. But as mentioned on these pages, it was an important confidence-booster from the goaltender who is third on the depth chart.

Despite some shakiness, the young gymnast had made it across the balance beam.

If surprised about Tokarski’s start on Saturday, I was thoroughly baffled by Michel Therrien’s decision to start Tokarski for the third straight time. Leave well enough alone.

So when Tokarski was pulled after giving up three goals just seven minutes into the second period, one had to wonder whether all of that confidence-boosting had just been unraveled. Wouldn’t it have been better to give Mike Condon the call and save a confident Tokarski for the next back-to-back?

That’s not to say that Tokarski was solely to blame — the pairing of P.K. Subban and Andrei Markov was on for all three goals against — but allowing three goals on just 12 shots simply doesn’t cut it.

In addition to the defensive lapses, one can’t ignore the power outage that is the Montreal offense. While the Canadiens outshot the visitors 10-3 in the first period, the Sharks blueliners did a good job of fronting Habs players forcing most shots to the perimeter.

Coming into the game the Canadiens had scored two goals or less in six of their last nine contests and the power-play was 0-for-17 over the last six games. Those stats didn’t improve tonight. And the Sharks swam into the Bell Centre riding a six-game losing streak with goaltender Martin Jones losing his past five starts.

After Therrien restored line combinations — Sven Andrighetto with Alex Galchenyuk and Lars Eller, Dale Weise with Tomas Fleischmann and David Desharnais — and put the dynamic Daniel Carr with Tomas Plekanec and Max Pacioretty, the offense started to show some life. But coach, why did you wait until your team was down 3-0 before doing the right thing?

And why did you start your number three?  Those who said that Carey Price was irrelevant this season are looking more than a little foolish right now.

This month is not going to get much easier. And unless Marc Bergevin has a surprise up his sleeve, help is not on the way. There are many who claim that Michel Therrien is an elite NHL coach. With just one Canadiens win in their past six games, we aren’t seeing the adjustments and strategies that would convince us of that.

The Canadiens will practice at 11 am. on Wednesday morning as they prepare to face the Kings on Thursday night.

▲     Torrey Mitchell, Brian Flynn, Daniel Carr, Alexei Emelin, Nathan Beaulieu

▼     Andrei Markov, P.K. Subban

1. Martin Jones  SJS
2. Joe Pavelski  SJS
3. Nathan Beaulieu  MTL

• “We need our best players to make a difference and win games. Some of them had good scoring chances but were unable to score. Putting Plekanec and Pacioretty back together was a message that was well received by the players.“

Max Pacioretty

• “Well, we gave them three goals, and you’ve got to think we come out with some good energy, but that’s a team that lost six in a row and we didn’t even make them work for their goals, so that’s frustrating.“

Dale Weise

• “We got off to a really good start. We were playing well, we just couldn’t find the back of the net, and we gift them three goals. So that’s extremely frustrating, when you’re playing really well and you give up goals like that.“

Sharks coach Peter DeBoer

• “Getting the first goal for us was important. We haven’t been getting that and we found a way to score the first goal. And our goaltender, when we got on our heels, we weathered the storm. And I really liked our second period. I thought we could have had a couple more. I thought, actually, Montreal’s goalie made some big saves to keep the game close at that point, and then the third period, they poured it on and we found a way to hang on.”

Quotes courtesy of NHL.com