CANADIENS
Montreal

4-5

CAPITALS
Washington

Lineup

Forward lines and defense pairings 

[one_half]Tatar – Danault – Gallagher
Drouin – Domi – Shaw
Agostino – Kotkaniemi – Lehkonen
Deslauriers – Peca – Hudon
[/one_half]

[one_half_last]Benn – Petry
Schlemko – Juulsen
Reilly – Mete

[/one_half_last]

Goaltenders

Price
Niemi

Scratches

Ouellet, Alzner

Injuries

Weber, Byron, Armia, Scherbak

Game Report 

Carey Price made 29 saves tonight on 34 shots. Some might be tempted to be critical pointing to an .853 save percentage in this game. And maybe, they would even add, “Stats don’t lie.”

Maybe not, but people do. And quoting numbers without context is simply meaningless. Those who attempt to draw conclusions from a box score without the benefit of watching the game won’t have a clue.

Carey Price was outstanding in this game. Several time throughout the game, Bell Centre fans could be heard chanting Ca-rey, Ca-rey!

Price made a dozen spectacular saves including three on Alex Ovechkin. So impressed was Ovechkin with Price’s unbelievable blocker save with decimal points remaining in the third, that the ‘Great 8’ applauded and gave Carey a low five. 

#AllCaps Ovechkin says he’s never congratulated an opposing goalie in-game like he did #Habs Price tonight: “It was a pretty cool moment, pretty beautiful save. Fans was cheering for him, I was kind of same (chuckles).”

— John Lu (@JohnLuTSNWpg) November 20, 2018

With respect to the save with three-tenths of a second left in the third, Ovechkin told Arpon Basu of The Athletic, “That one was definitely up there, I think, with the situation, with the time left. That’s what he is, he’s a difference-maker. That’s the level he’s capable of; pulling out stuff like that, you’ve just got to tip your hat. But I’m not surprised because I’ve seen him do it before. He’s just that good.”

There was no question, in Ovechkin’s mind, who stood in the way of a Capitals regulation-time win. He told Basu, “Obviously in the third period I think we had plenty of chances to get two points in regulation time. But Price was unstoppable. He was really good tonight.”

Price delivered one point tonight while breakdowns were happening all around him. And Price was forced to play without one of his best defenders, Noah Juulsen, who was taken to the hospital for tests after being hit in the face with a puck.

The save percentage is irrelevant. Price had to fend off high danger shots all night (as he has all season long.) 

Is Marc Bergevin paying attention? It is up to him to provide some help. And Claude Julien could begin to do his part. Icing the Habs fourth line against the likes of Backstrom and Ovechkin didn’t work out so well.

By accident, Jesperi Kotkaniemi found himself on the first wave of the Canadiens power-play and the results were instant. Kotkaniemi had a strong game tonight adding two assists to his impressive rookie total. And it goes beyond the power-play, Kotkaniemi deserves a bigger role at even strength taking over from an under-producing Phillip Danault.

While many talk of Bergevin’s pending roster problem – having too many defencemen – in reality, the GM has assembled too few quality d-men who fit with the style they want to play. Time to ditch quantity for quality.

Once again the Canadiens lost a game due to Jonathan Drouin’s unwillingness to play without the puck. Claude Julien has not demanded accountability from Drouin all season. It is time that he did.

In addition, when the Canadiens power-play had the chance to put away this game with a four minute advantage, they failed. The Drouin quarterbacked power-play is 28th in the league so far this season.

To sum up the game, we can turn to Tomas Tatar, who simply said, “Carey got us a point tonight.”

===

▲  Carey Price, Brendan Gallagher, Jesperi Kotkaniemi, Artturi Lehkonen, Jeff Petry

▼  Jonathan Drouin, Andrew Shaw, Charles Hudon, Matthew Peca, Nicolas Deslauriers, David Schlemko, Jordie Benn, Phillip Danault

1. Alex Ovechkin  WSH
2. Jeff Petry  MTL
3. John Carlson  WSH

• “We had some good moments, but we were tired at the end. We played with three lines. The third period hurt us. Carey did everything he could to keep us in the game. We were in a good position at one point, but penalties cost us the game. It was tough for us to maintain our rhythm against Washington in a situation like that.”

Jeff Petry

• “As a player, there’s times where you just have to tip your hat. [Carey Price] made a great save and I think everyone in the building was applauding that (including Alex Ovechkin.)”
• “I think we deserved to win and should have won, especially with the way Carey played.”

Brendan Gallagher

• “We had pretty good jump there for awhile, but they’re as good as they are for a reason. They made plays, and Pricey made timely save after timely save. It’s disappointing we weren’t able to get a win for him.”

Tomas Tatar

• “It wasn’t an easy game. We came back from a long trip out West and we felt it at a certain point. We should have scored on the 5-on-3 power play. We have to thank Carey for his work tonight. He was fantastic. We picked up a point because of him.”

Quotes courtesy of NHL.com

Ovi can't help but applaud that Price save. #respect pic.twitter.com/c4WeEGDD7c

— NBC Sports Capitals (@NBCSCapitals) November 20, 2018

Take 5 | Habs News: Price, Giguere, Defence, Weber, Tieman https://t.co/q4C60gTmfD @RocketSports pic.twitter.com/JnUVs5ekq7

— All Habs (@AllHabs) November 19, 2018

Join our talented @RocketSports team! Currently looking to add sports writers, photographers and podcast producers. https://t.co/RZwfzrNj4J #Habs #GoHabsGo #NHL #podcast pic.twitter.com/TU2MZ7gm1w

— All Habs (@AllHabs) September 22, 2018

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