CANADIENS
Montreal

4-1

SENATORS
Ottawa

Lineup

Forward lines and defense pairings 

[one_half]Pacioretty – Byron – Hudon
Galchenyuk – Drouin – Scherbak
Lehkonen – Plekanec – Gallagher
Deslauriers – Froese – L. Shaw
[/one_half]

[one_half_last]Alzner – Petry
Mete – Schlemko
Morrow – Benn
[/one_half_last]

Goaltenders

Price
Niemi

Scratches

Jacob De La Rose, Daniel Carr, Jakub Jerabek

Injuries

Ales Hemsky – concussion, Shea Weber – lower-body, Phillip Danault – concussion, Andrew Shaw – lower-body

Game Report 

So the Canadiens went 2-0 on Super Bowl weekend! Bell Centre fans went home happy and the rancor on social media was tamped down temporarily. 

The pair of wins may come back to hurt the Canadiens on June 22nd, but as they say, fans are not rational. And are not very good at delayed gratification.

So let’s savor this victory and highlight some standout performances.

First and foremost, it was good to see Artturi Lehkonen get rewarded with two goals and a first star. Lehkonen is one of the hardest workers on the team, every night. He goes to the net, is the Habs’ best forechecker and consistently creates scoring chances for others.

Those contributions may go unnoticed particularly on a team that struggles to finish their chances.

Speaking of unheralded players, there’s Tomas Plekanec. The veteran centre is one of the very best in the league at shutting down opposition threats. It is a role he has been asked to play by multiple coaches.

Playing the role against an opponent’s most talented offensive players comes with considerable sacrifice to his own offense. But with an assist on Lehkonen’s second goal, Plekanec tallied point number 600 (230 goals, 370 assists) with the Montreal Canadiens. That’s 13th on the Canadiens all-time scoring list.

With a third period goal, Plekanec is now at 601 points, just 11 back of Mats Naslund for twelfth place.

And then there was the weekend performance by Nikita Scherbak. The 22-year-old looked comfortable in an offensive role alongside Alex Galchenyuk and Jonathan Drouin picking up points in both games since his recall from Laval.

 Lastly, a stick tap to Jeff Petry who scored his third power-play goal of the weekend. Petry was a big part of the Canadiens going 5-for-10 on the man advantage during the Saturday and Sunday matinees.

===

▲  Artturi Lehkonen, Tomas Plekanec, Carey Price, Jeff Petry, Nikita Scherbak, Alex Galchenyuk, Victor Mete

▼  Logan Shaw, David Schlemko

1. Artturi Lehkonen  MTL
2. Tomas Plekanec  MTL
3. Nikita Scherbak  MTL

• “I had a good discussion with [Artturi Lehkonen] to keep him motivated. I think he had several chances that he could not convert recently. At a certain point, what can we do? You just have to find a way for it to end up. He kept a good attitude and working hard, eventually it starts to come.”
• “[Tomas Plekanec] is good in the faceoff circle, he does a great job killing penalties. He scores a goal, stays on the puck there, and he makes the most of a great pass to Lehky on his second goal. I thought he played a really good game. He’s a veteran we’ve leaned on a lot this year, especially having some issues at center. I’m really happy for him. Six hundred points is a pretty good feat for him.”

Artturi Lehkonen

• “It’s good to score, that’s for sure. It’s a difficult situation in which you do not want to be in. There is nothing to do but keep a positive attitude and work as hard as you can. There are no other ways. You can not start complaining about your fate.”

Tomas Plekanec

• “I’m lucky to have played with guys like Kovy [Alex Kovalev] and [Andrei] Kostitsyn at the time, among others. I’m not a numbers guy, I do not really care about my stats, but I have to admit it’s a good feeling.”

Brendan Gallagher

• “It’s a great achievement. [Tomas Plekanec] has been here for so long, he’s always on the ice against the best guys, he has a responsibility defensively and he’s chipped in 601 times now. It’s pretty impressive. I’ve enjoyed playing with him and learning from him, and hopefully we’ll do it a lot more.”

Quotes courtesy of NHL.com

Congrats to Plekanec and his 600th career points @AllHabs pic.twitter.com/bKfeN9pFfc

— Mathieu CHagnon (@Mat_CH) February 4, 2018

As we reported last week, a bad back had a lot to do with Lehkonen's early-season struggles and forced him to the sidelines for 16 games. He had played through considerable pain until he could no longer tolerate it. Playing catch up ain't easy in this league.

— Eric Engels (@EricEngels) February 4, 2018

RECAP | Rocket – Marlies: Laval Handed Dismal Divisional Defeat in Toronto https://t.co/zPLudhWGZ8 pic.twitter.com/oQHVymFQ6d

— AHL Report (@TheAHLReport) February 4, 2018

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