Canadiens Lineup

Cole Caufield – Nick Suzuki – Kirby Dach

Juraj Slafkovsky – Christian Dvorak – Brendan Gallagher

Evgenii Dadonov – Sean Monahan – Josh Anderson

Michael Pezzetta – Jake Evans – Joel Armia

Kaiden Guhle – David Savard

Mike Matheson – Joel Edmundson

Chris Wideman – Jordan Harris

Jake Allen – Sam Montembeault

Arber Xhekaj, Johnathan Kovacevic

Carey Price (knee), Paul Byron (hip), Mike Hoffman (upper-body), Jonathan Drouin (upper-body)

Game Report

On Saturday versus the Flyers, the Canadiens were down 2-0 before the game was three minutes old. That doesn’t happen very often to a well-prepared NHL team.

But it happened again tonight. And this time it was worse.

The Sabres scored twice in the first minute of play and added a third goal at the 2:13 mark. Martin St. Louis doesn’t much care for systems play or advance scouting but he is doing his players a disservice.

The Flyers came into Saturday’s game winning just two of their previous 10 games. Buffalo, tonight’s opponent, had lost eight games in a row. Yet both teams were able to fully take advantage of an ill-prepared St. Louis’ squad.

With another poor start, the Canadiens were left to chase the Sabres all game. And with Jake Allen struggling in goal once again, Buffalo enthusiastically added to their lead. It was the first time Allen had given up seven goals in a single game in his career.

The Canadiens defence, which had been a pleasant surprise to start the season, has not looked the same since Mike Matheson joined the lineup. Matheson’s decision-making has been the issue, finishing a team-worst minus-3 in this game.

Matheson’s return has also upset the other defence pairings which had been performing so well. With the coaching staff wanting to deploy Matheson with Edmundson, it’s unclear why they found it a good idea to separate Jordan Harris from Johnathan Kovacevic, who had been the Canadiens second best duo to that point.

Up Next

The Canadiens will return to Nationwide Arena to face the Blue Jackets on Wednesday night. Columbus handed the Habs a 6-4 loss in the same building last week. 

Be sure to watch for our Game Day Preview on Wednesday afternoon.

Plus

Minus

Game Preview