Canadiens Lineup

Artturi Lehkonen – Nick Suzuki – Tyler Toffoli

Rem Pitlick – Jake Evans – Josh Anderson

Mike Hoffman – Paul Byron – Brendan Gallagher

Joel Armia – Ryan Poehling – Cole Caufield

Ben Chiarot – Alexander Romanov

Brett Kulak – Jeff Petry

Kale Clague – Chris Wideman

Cayden Primeau – Sam Montembeault

Cedric Paquette, Michael Pezzetta, Laurent Dauphin

Christian Dvorak (upper-body), David Savard (ankle), Jonathan Drouin (wrist), Jake Allen (lower-body), Mathieu Perreault (lower-body), Joel Edmundson (back), Carey Price (knee), Shea Weber (multiple injuries)

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Game Report

This game was always going to be a win. Not a win of the two-point variety but one where Canadiens players celebrated their love of playing hockey. The silent soundtrack accompanying the game could have been “Ding Dong! The Witch Is Dead.”

While Martin St. Louis accepted the praise of the adoring media post-game, it was clear that the absence of Dominique Ducharme provided a boost to his former charges.

The situation had become untenable. Ducharme’s message was tired and repetitive. The players had stopped listening, and more disturbingly, had stopped caring.

The players had met with their coach, imploring him to ditch their overly complicated and ineffective system. But Ducharme was stubborn, always acting like he was the smartest person in the room.

As we know, it led to one of the worst seasons in Canadiens history.

With an inexperienced St. Louis onboard, Marty provided the injection of emotion while the assistant coaches took care of the rest. The pressure system was discarded replaced with a basic man-to-man approach that all players understand.

Goaltending was still an issue with Cayden Primeau giving up four goals, three of the soft variety. But overall, the Canadiens skaters provided a more spirited effort in a losing cause.

There were mistakes of exuberance. It’s unlikely that the coaching staff want Nick Suzuki playing 24:19 on a regular basis in a meaningless season. And Ryan Poehling obviously has earned more than a 9:33 look. The head coach is in learning mode admitting that he didn’t yet know all their names or numbers.

In the end, the performance itself had little to do with the influence of St. Louis and much more to players being released from the oppression of an incompetent coach.

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