CANADIENS
Montreal

SHARKS
San Jose

Lineup

Forward lines and defense pairings 

[one_half]Pacioretty – Plekanec – Radulov
Byron – Mitchell – Gallagher
 Carr – Danault – Lehkonen
Andrighetto – Flynn – McCarron
[/one_half]

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

Goaltenders

Price
Montoya

Scratches

Andrew Shaw (concussion symptoms), Mark Barberio

Injured Reserve

Alex Galchenyuk (knee), David Desharnais (knee), Greg Pateryn (ankle) 

Game Report

With the Canadiens dealing with several injuries, one to their top centre, you might expect that matchups would be key in a game against the Sharks. One might expect that, not having played since Monday, the Canadiens would come out of the gate with a lot of jump. And having some extra practice time this week, you might expect that special teams play would be particularly good in this game.

Well, if those were your assumptions coming into the game, you would quickly be proven wrong.  As you should know by now logic and the Canadiens head coach are not best of friends.

Normally teams want to set the tone of the game from the outset. Although able to dictate a favorable matchup on home ice, Therrien chose to not to start his top line of Tomas Plekanec between Max Pacioretty and Alexander Radulov. Instead he called on the line of Torrey Mitchell with Paul Byron and Brendan Gallagher.

13 seconds into the game, Mitchell took an interference penalty drawn by Marc-Edouard Vlasic. While the Sharks did not score, a tone was set. A short time later, the line Therrien chose to start the game would be a factor again as Byron was called for hooking Mikkel Boedker. This time the Sharks capitalized with a power-play goal.

A couple of minutes later, Mitchell had his second penalty of the game. a high-stick on Joe Thornton. The Sharks scored a second power-play goal by Patrick Marleau.

Clearly, the Canadiens did not come out strong at home. They didn’t set a tone. They were not winning the matchups game. And the penalty-kill got off to a terrible start. The power-play would also prove to be ineffective and the game went downhill from there.

After 20 minutes, the Sharks had a 3-0 lead on 15 shots. It was clear that the Canadiens weren’t providing any support to Carey Price particularly on the penalty-kill. It’s reasonable to assume that during the intermission, Price was asked if he wanted to continue.  It’s reasonable to assume this because we know it has happened before.

With Price on the ice to start the second period, it’s reasonable to assume that he wanted to stay in the game. So when Therrien called him to the bench just six minutes into the period after the Canadiens game up a fourth goal, it’s understandable that Price would be upset.

Was Price so perturbed at his teammates that he publicly shot them a look before disappearing down the tunnel? That’s just silly. Price was not happy at being pulled from the game and directed his stare at the only person in the building who made the decision to pull him from the game.

With a final surge the Canadiens would make the final result appear respectable but it’s fair to say that they were never in this game. Not from the first puck drop. And we all know who is responsible for getting the team ready to play.

~~~

▲     Alexei Emelin, Brian Flynn, Jeff Petry, Michael McCarron

▼     Zach Redmond, Torrey Mitchell, Phillip Danault, Tomas Plekanec, Paul Byron, penalty-kill, power-play

1.  Joe Thornton  SJS
2.  David Schlemko  SJS
3.  Brent Burns  SJS

• “Firstly, I didn’t like the way the team was playing in front of him, and secondly, that allows us to come back with him [Saturday].” 

Max Pacioretty

• “We just dug too big a hole to dig ourselves out of.”

Quotes courtesy of NHL.com