CANADIENS
Montreal

2-4

LIGHTNING
Tampa Bay

Game Notes:

Not captain material.  Can we now put an end to the ridiculous notion that P.K. Subban should be the next captain of the Montreal Canadiens?  Did Brian Gionta, Saku Koivu and Jean Beliveau stand up for a teammate? Of course! But to walk down the bench, reach around the glass and poke the alleged protagonist?  It was a selfish, immature and completely useless gesture by Subban. And the resulting penalty and Tampa power-play goal turned the 1-1 game.  Not to mention that it was Subban’s second minor of the game and that he was caught up the ice handing the Lightning a 4-on-2 opportunity.  The Brett Connolly goal was the game-winner.

Where’s the offense? It took 13 minutes into the game for the Canadiens to register their first shot on goal. At home.  With GM Marc Bergevin seemingly having a singular focus on acquiring defensemen, there remains a giant hole in the top-6 for a scoring winger.  Bergevin re-signed Mike Weaver who has been a frequent scratch, signed the unreliable Tom Gilbert and traded for Bryan Allen, who cleared waivers on Tuesday and was shipped to Hamilton. With the exception of Sergei Gonchar, it’s hard to argue that the defense has improved from 2013-14 and the rather large scoring hole remains.

Price stands alone.  While some have gone out of their way in recent days to minimize the value of Carey Price, he remains the Canadiens best player, game in and game out.  Whether you look at shots on goal (36-22), Corsi (64-44), or Fenwick, (47-31), Tampa Bay dominated with Price doing his best to keep his team in the game.  Perhaps most telling was scoring chances that were reported at 26-12 for the Lightning.  Tampa Bay was getting quality opportunities throughout the game.

Power-play. It’s time for Michel Therrien to admit that he doesn’t have a clue about running a power-play and find someone who does.  The Canadiens were 0-for-3 on Tuesday night and 1-for-16 in the past six games. Two power-play goals for the Lightning were the difference in the game.  Montreal is ranked 26th in the league on the power-play, in the company of non-playoff teams like Buffalo, Edmonton, Florida and Colorado.  If the Canadiens power-play was performing as well as their penalty-kill, they would have scored 13 more goals this season.

Plus / Minus

▲    Sergei Gonchar, Dale Weise, Max Pacioretty, Carey Price

▼    P.K. Subban, Tom Gilbert, Alex Galchenyuk, Michel Therrien

1.  Tyler Johnson  TBL
2.  Nikita Kucherov  TBL
3.  Dale Weise  MTL

• “We played against a really good team and we have to play better against a team like that. Our level of competitiveness wasn’t where it had to be and we didn’t play a disciplined brand of hockey. If you put those two ingredients together, the recipe isn’t a good one. We forgot the reason why we’ve had success as of late. We didn’t deserve to win. We’ve got to put this one behind us and get our focus back, get our work ethic back and get our discipline back.”

Max Pacioretty

• “It definitely is disappointing. We wanted to prove something. We beat Pittsburgh last game and it would have been a pretty big statement if we could’ve come home and beat Tampa. But, we didn’t show up for half the game and with a team that has that much skill, you’re not going to win too many games when you do that. We talked about discipline earlier in the season and we took too many penalties. It was good to win six in a row, but there’s a reason for that success. We can’t play that way against a team like that.”

P.K. Subban

• “I don’t think we had the start we wanted. You definitely don’t want to be putting them on the power play. It’s tough to be critical of everything we’ve done because we’ve done things so well as of late, but we did so many things that aren’t going to help you win that game. We’ve got to be more disciplined. It starts there. I don’t think it really comes down to X’s and O’s. I think we have to compete harder in certain areas. We just didn’t do it. I’d love to have it back. I let my frustration get the best of me. Sometimes, that’s what happens when your emotions get the best of you. You learn and move on from there.”

Lightning forward Steven Stamkos

• “We played really well, and that’s a good team. I think the stat was that they were 16-0-0 when they scored first, so it was nice to break that, but most importantly it was two points. I thought we played well, two big goals by the power play, which was nice to see. That’s a big win for us.”