Canadiens Lineup

Cole Caufield – Nick Suzuki – Josh Anderson

Rem Pitlick – Jake Evans – Mike Hoffman

Joel Armia – Christian Dvorak – Brendan Gallagher

Paul Byron – Ryan Poehling – Tyler Pitlick

Alexander Romanov – David Savard

Joel Edmundson – Jeff Petry

Jordan Harris – Chris Wideman

Sam Montembeault – Cayden Primeau

William Lagesson, Mathieu Perreault, Kale Clague, Michael Pezzetta, Laurent Dauphin, Corey Schueneman 

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

Game Report

The end of the season is in sight. Just eight games left now until the Canadiens can put this difficult season to bed. These are the games that are difficult for the players to find their motivation, and it showed tonight.

The bloom is off the rose for Marty St. Louis and his enthusiastic pre-game messages to the players. Easter weekend is coming up and many of the players will have extra family in Montreal for the holiday. Their attention clearly wasn’t focused on a mid-week game against the Blue Jackets. 

Montreal managed just four shots on goal in the first period and could not generate offence throughout the game. Their lone goal came on the power-play with Ryan Poehling redirecting a Nick Suzuki point shot. 

The Canadiens put themselves in a difficult position each time they are outshot and outchanced. As St. Louis said, it’s difficult to chase the game in the NHL.

Defensively the Canadiens didn’t play an effective system. The game was wrought with turnovers and forwards too often thinking about offence before the puck had exited the zone. 

Sam Montembeault really struggled overplaying the puck at times, making puck-handling mistakes and giving up soft goals from bad angles.

In giving up five goals, the Canadiens set a franchise record: 27 regular season games of allowing at least five goals. And tonight, each of those goals against was punctuated with a cannon blast.

Up Next

Plus

Minus

▼  Sam Montembeault, Cole Caufield, Rem Pitlick, Mike Hoffman, Christian Dvorak, Tyler Pitlick, David Savard, Alexander Romanov, Josh Anderson

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