Canadiens Lineup

Mike Hoffman – Nick Suzuki – Jake Evans

Rem Pitlick – Christian Dvorak – Jonathan Drouin 

Artturi Lehkonen – Ryan Poehling – Cole Caufield

Michael Pezzetta – Laurent Dauphin – Joel Armia 

Ben Chiarot – David Savard

Brett Kulak – Jeff Petry

Alexander Romanov – Corey Schueneman

Sam Montembeault – Cayden Primeau

Kale Clague, Cedric Paquette, Sami Niku

Jake Allen (undisclosed), Paul Byron (hip), Brendan Gallagher (lower-body), Mathieu Perreault (undisclosed), Josh Anderson (upper-body), Tyler Toffoli (hand), Joel Edmundson (back), Carey Price (knee), Shea Weber (multiple injuries)

Alex Belzile, Rafael Harvey-Pinard

Michael McNiven, Lukas Vejdemo, Jesse Ylonen

Chris Wideman

Game Report

It’s ironic that the Canadiens lost this game in overtime on a controversial play as Mike Hoffman crashed into Sam Montembeault sending him into the back of the goal. Ironic because Dominique Ducharme has been preaching to his troops all week in practice about driving to the net. We assume that he meant in the offensive zone.

Getting to the blue paint is something that few Montreal players have done this season. In fact, it appeared to be a contentious subject this week as Jonathan Drouin got into a heated discussion with the head coach about his lack of presence in that area of the ice. 

But Ryan Poehling didn’t need much encouragement. Poehling was the Canadiens best forward in this game and his occupation of Chicago’s net front led to several good scoring chances and a power-play goal from Mike Hoffman. Poehling was also exceptional in his own zone and dominated faceoffs with a success rate of 82 per cent.

On the back end it was Alexander Romanov making heavy hits — his clean shoulder check on Sam Lafferty was a thing of beauty — playing good defensive hockey and creating offence. Romanov’s assist led to Jeff Petry’s first goal of the season in his 29th game. In fact going back to last season, it was Petry’s first goal in 54 games.

The line of Christian Dvorak, Rem Pitlick and Drouin were buried all game long by their Chicago counterparts. Pitlick looked out of place in the top six and will likely be more comfortable down the lineup and in a role with much fewer minutes. He should have no trouble supplanting Cedric Paquette on the fourth line.

The overtime winner was a difficult pill to swallow. To be fair, the officials and the NHL situation room got the first review right. With Hoffman taking out his own goaltender, the puck crossed the line between the pipes. The offside review was far more subjective and one that understandably ruffled the feathers of many Habs fans. 

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