CANADIENS
Montreal

6-3

FLYERS
Philadelphia

Game Notes:

PP arrives.  The Canadiens could not maintain their lofty place in the standings while their power-play languished at the bottom of the rankings with an eight percent efficiency. Montreal’s first three goals were scored with the man advantage. The power-play success was the difference in the game and should help bring confidence going forward.  Before celebrating too much, it should be acknowledged that Philadelphia has the worst road penalty-killing team in the league. As tweeted by David Strehle from TFP, “So make it Flyers PK failures in 6 of 7 opponent PP opportunities in the last 24 hours. Ouch…” And those rebounds from Flyers goalie Ray Emery.

PP alignment. Sergei Gonchar adds another left-handed shot to the power-play and in Gonchar and Andrei Markov, you have two smart, creative, skilled defencemen who make their linemates look good by making good decisions. Each of them picked up two assists on Saturday night. But the biggest change in the power-play is players willing to go to the tough areas of the ice to feast on rebounds.  And although he scored a power-play goal tonight on a click passing play from Tomas Plekanec and Alex Galchenyuk, one has to wonder whether the $9M, P.K. Subban will be satisfied 24 seconds of power-play time, the amount that he received tonight with Markov and Gonchar manning the points on the first wave.

Work hard and carry a hockey stick. While lacking style and skill, Dale Weise compensates with determination and heart. Weise followed up a first star outing against Boston with two goals and a third star on Saturday night. Weise’s two goals came as he was filling in for Brendan Gallagher in a defensive capacity on a line with Tomas Plekanec and Alex Galchenyuk.

Real stars.  You may be noticing a pattern. While the names of Tomas Plekanec and Alex Galchenyuk didn’t find their way onto the 3-stars sheet, all the pair do is make players better around them. They may not be blessed with pillow-soft matchups or power-play time but quietly the pair had five points. The hard, quick, accurate passes to set up P.K. Subban‘s goal were a thing of beauty.

Top line. The Canadiens first line, particularly the top centre was being criticized (deservedly so) for contributing to a lack of production, particularly on the power-play.  The trio took advantage of a weak Flyers penalty-kill to score twice in the first period.  P.A. Parenteau added his second of the game early in the third period.

The system. With the Therrien experimental structure fully shelved the Canadiens are back to playing better defensive hockey particularly in the neutral zone over the past five games. When they did have possession on the rush, the Flyers were still able to gain the Montreal zone too easily. But it would appear that the familiar structure is one that has the confidence of the players.  And it yielded the first lead after 20 minutes this season.

Plus / Minus

▲   Carey Price, Dale Weise, Alexei Emelin, Tomas Plekanec, Alex Galchenyuk, Max Pacioretty, David Desharnais, P.A. Parenteau, Sergei Gonchar, Andrei Markov

▼   Brendan Gallagher, Tom Gilbert

1.  P.A. Parenteau  MTL 
2.  David Desharnais  MTL
3.  Dale Weise  MTL

• “[Sergei Gonchar] is confident and appreciated here, but most of all he brings results.”

Dale Weise

• “It feels good, but I think our team is playing well and that feels even better. It’s nice to have personal success, but it’s nicer for the whole team to be scoring goals and having success on the power play. I think the whole team should feel good about our game.”

Sergei Gonchar

• “I don’t know what things were like here before, but it seems like we already have all the tools we need. We have good players, we’re moving the puck well and helping each other out, which is a big part of it. Now we just need to keep doing so. We have good chemistry here and I’m happy to be a part of the team.”

P.A. Parenteau

• “We were more patient, we controlled the puck better, and we played a smarter game with more confidence. When you’re able to do all of those things, that’s when good things happen. I think we played a good game tonight. It was a nice group effort once again, which has been the key for us over the last five games. It was a fun game to be a part of.”

Flyers coach Craig Berube

• “It looks like we’re getting spread out a little bit too much on the penalty kill. We’re leaving the front of the net vulnerable; it was clear [Saturday] on three goals, so we’ve got to be a lot better.”
• “We battled back, put ourselves in position to get back into the game and win the game. We let it get away from us in the third.”