Canadiens Lineup

Cole Caufield – Nick Suzuki – Josh Anderson

Rem Pitlick – Jake Evans – Joel Armia

Mike Hoffman – Christian Dvorak – Brendan Gallagher

Michael Pezzetta – Ryan Poehling – Tyler Pitlick

Alexander Romanov – David Savard

Joel Edmundson – Jeff Petry

Corey Schueneman – Chris Wideman

Sam Montembeault – Carey Price

William Lagesson, Mathieu Perreault, Kale Clague, , Laurent Dauphin, , Paul Byron, Jordan Harris

Jake Allen (lower-body), Justin Barron (lower-body), Jonathan Drouin (wrist), Shea Weber (multiple injuries)

Game Report

The Canadiens started well in this game taking advantage of a sloppy effort from the Capitals. Montreal outshot the Caps 15-7 but they couldn’t finish their chances. Washington took a one goal lead in the first period and never looked back.

There is no way to sugarcoat this one. Sam Montembeault had another very bad start giving up a number of soft goals. At this point, it is clear that he is overwhelmed by hockey played at the NHL level.

Montembeault wasn’t the only Habs player to struggle in this game. He had plenty of company. But let’s set that aside.

The good news story came from Ryan Poehling. Poehling drove to the net all game long and came away with two goals from shear hard work. And, but for a failed breakaway attempt, he could have had a hat trick.

With the rest of the Canadiens finding it difficult to score, Poehling has three goals in the past three games in limited ice time. He also led all Canadiens centres tonight with a success rate of 67 percent at the faceoff dot.

There were also stories of class and respect in tonight’s game.

In the pre-game warmup, Capitals forward Lars Eller dared to cross the centre line to tap Carey Price on the pads to show him some love. During the game, as he waited on the boards for his shift, Alexander Ovechkin reached out to fist pump Price who occupied the backup position at the end of the bench.

And while we are looking across to the Capitals side, there’s a stick tap for a four-point  night for Anthony Mantha, grandson of former Canadiens winger Andre Pronovost.

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