Canadiens Lineup

Lukas Vejdemo – Nick Suzuki – Brendan Gallagher

Harvey-Pinard – Ryan Poehling – Cole Caufield

Alex Belzile – Jake Evans – Jesse Ylonen

Michael Pezzetta – Cedric Paquette – Brandon Baddock

Alexander Romanov – David Savard

Brett Kulak – Kale Clague

Corey Schueneman – Sami Niku

Sam Montembeault – Michael McNiven

Jonathan Drouin

Joel Armia (undisclosed), Mathieu Perreault (undisclosed), Christian Dvorak (lower-body), Josh Anderson (upper-body), Carey Price (knee), Shea Weber (multiple injuries)

Jake Allen, Ben Chiarot, Jeff Petry, Joel Edmundson, Chris Wideman, Laurent Dauphin, Mike Hoffman, Artturi Lehkonen, Tyler Toffoli, Cayden Primeau, Paul Byron, Louie Belpedio, Gianni Fairbrother

Cam Hillis

Game Report

Hurricanes fans were a little concerned that their team would be rusty for this matchup after a layoff of almost two weeks. While the Canadiens did not allow an even strength goal in this game, the Canes controlled possession throughout the contest. This meant starting most shifts with the puck aided by a dominant 72 percent success rate at the faceoff dot.

Carolina generated offence from their special teams going 3-for-5 on the power-play and adding a shorthanded goal. The Hurricanes managed just three high danger scoring chances (5v5) in the entire game. But the Canadiens weren’t creating much either leading to a shutout for Antti Ranta, his first of the season.

It was the NHL debut for rugged winger Brandon Baddock who found his way into the lineup as a last minute replacement. Jonathan Drouin took the warm-up but was scratched for this contest. Dominique Ducharme said that Drouin didn’t have any energy and was a late scratch.

Lukas Vejdemo was promoted to the top line with Nick Suzuki and Brendan Gallagher. Gallagher didn’t not return for the third period. Ducharme called Gallagher ‘day-to-day’ with a lower-body injury.  

The Canadiens played this game with 13 players on the COVID protocol list and several others injured. But the game went ahead at the PNC Arena with more than a few commentators raising an eyebrow about the integrity of the NHL.

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