Canadiens Lineup

Tomas Tatar – Phillip Danault – Nick Cousins

Artturi Lehkonen – Max Domi – Nick Suzuki

Ryan Poehling – Jesperi Kotkaniemi – Jordan Weal

Lukas Vejdemo – Nate Thompson – Dale Weise

Ben Chiarot – Shea Weber

Victor Mete – Jeff Petry

Marco Scandella – Cale Fleury

Carey Price – Charlie Lindgren

Christian Folin, Brett Kulak, Ilya Kovalchuk

Paul Byron, Jonathan Drouin, Matthew Peca, Joel Armia, Brendan Gallagher

Game Report

The first game of the second half of the season didn’t go as planned. While Marc Bergevin whines about injuries, teams like the Maple Leafs, Avalanche and Penguins roll along with key personnel out of their lineups.

The visitors tonight were missing Jake Guentzel, Justin Schultz, Brian Dumoulin, Nick Bjugstad and of course, Sidney Crosby. With their win tonight, the Penguins are fourth overall in the NHL. Colorado is fifth in the league and Toronto holds down eighth place.

With a single point, the Canadiens moved up to 22nd overall.

In fact 15 teams have lost more man-games to injury than the Canadiens. Only four of those teams have fewer points than Montreal. Bergevin is spinning that injuries are responsible for the team’s fate but that’s far more about his own self-preservation than representing reality.

No, the Habs position in the bottom third of the NHL is more about the way this team has been assembled and the way they are being coached. Pittsburgh’s tying goal was scored with the Canadiens fourth line facing the top line of the Penguins. That should never happen when the coach controls the changes at home.

As it was, the Canadiens were struggling to control the duo of Evgeni Malkin and Bryan Rust. Pittsburgh dominated play, resulting in multiple odd man breaks for the visitors. The Penguins had 37 shots on goal with a remarkable 19 high-danger scoring chances.  

From the heat map, we can see that the Penguins’ shot attempts came from in close. By contrast, the majority of Canadiens’ opportunities were from the Pens’ blueline.

In his league-leading 34th start, Carey Price was on his own most of the night against a high-powered offence. Price was outstanding making 34 saves. The Habs are still missing a top-pairing defenceman who can lineup beside Shea Weber.

Artturi Lehkonen provided the offence tonight for the Habs playing a superb game. Lehkonen had two goals yet could have had more with a breakaway in the third period and a shot off the crossbar in overtime. Lehkonen also drew a penalty but the power-play could not convert tonight going 0-for-4.

The Habs are one of three teams in the league that has a losing record at home. 

The Canadiens host the Winnipeg Jets on Monday at the Bell Centre.

Plus / Minus

▲  Carey Price, Artturi Lehkonen, Ryan Poehling

▼  Phillip Danault, Tomas Tatar, Ben Chiarot, Dale Weise, Nate Thompson