CANADIENS
Montreal

1-2

RED WINGS
Detroit

Lineup

Forward lines and defense pairings 

[one_half]Pacioretty – Galchenyuk – Radulov
Byron – Plekanec – Gallagher
Lehkonen – Danault – Shaw
King – Ott – Mitchell
[/one_half]

[one_half_last]Markov – Weber
Emelin – Petry
Beaulieu – Benn
[/one_half_last]

Goaltenders

Montoya
Price

Scratches

Brandon Davidson, Brian Flynn, Michael McCarron, Andreas Martinsen, Nikita Nesterov

Injured Reserve

Game Report

You know the formula. Canadiens play on the perimeter for the first two periods, bring offensive pressure in the third and score in the last five minutes in the game.

It has worked well to date with the Habs piling up overtime and shootout wins in the Claude Julien era. But not on this night.

The Canadiens have a favorable schedule, with games remaining against teams out of the playoffs with the exception of Ottawa. The Red Wings are next to last in the conference and, having played on Monday night, two points should have been there for the picking for Montreal.

But goals are still not coming easily whether 5-on-5, or with the man advantage. Currently, the Canadiens are on a 1-for-21 run on the power-play.

The trio of Alex Galchenyuk, Max Pacioretty and Alexander Radulov is not clicking right now. And the head coach was not hiding the fact that his talented centre is not playing well. “[Alex Galchenyuk] didn’t have a good game tonight. He’s going to tell you the same thing. It was a tough night for him,” said Claude Julien.

So with time winding down in the third period, Julien “split [the top line] up because there was nothing going on there. We needed a goal.” And Julien got his wish. Artturi Lehkonen capped off a superb effort tonight with the game-tying goal.

Post-game, the coach said that overnight, he would give some thought to his trios. It seems that the writing is on the wall that Galchenyuk will not be centering Pacioretty and Radulov on Thursday night against the Hurricanes. Expect changes at Wednesday’s practice.

~~~

▲     Artturi Lehkonen, Alexei Emelin, Jeff Petry

▼     Alex Galchenyuk

1.  Jimmy Howard  DET
2.  Al Montoya  MTL
3.  Anthony Mantha  DET

• “[Artturi Lehkonen] is a very smart player. Some young players figure it out quicker than others. He’s very trustworthy.”
• “[Alex Galchenyuk] didn’t have a good game tonight. He’s going to tell you the same thing. It was a tough night for him.”
• “At the end of the game I split [the top line: Max Pacioretty, Alex Galchenyuk, Alexander Radulov] up because there was nothing going on there. We needed a goal. I have to get back to the drawing board tomorrow and see what I can do, whether I need to change things.”

Artturi Lehkonen

• “There was a loose puck in our own end, and guys were just yelling ‘skate! skate! skate!’ so I told myself, ‘alright, I’ll skate this one in’. [Detroit was] making a change, so there was a lot of room in the neutral zone, and then when I got into their zone, I just tried to shoot it on the net and it was good that it went in.”

Max Pacioretty

• “It was a great play by Lehky. He was able to get us a point, but we still would have liked to get the second one for Monty. That’s the way it went tonight, […] and now we’ll move on and try to get better.”

Quotes courtesy of NHL.com

HABS PROSPECTS | Simon Bourque, A Late Round Gem for the Canadiens https://t.co/7o01sf4SmN pic.twitter.com/FZpjAS6KRe

— AHL Report (@TheAHLReport) March 21, 2017

I will take up a religion if the #habs score

— Lord Justin of Blairadam (@XjumauX) March 22, 2017

#Habs mental lapses hurt them on the scoreboard. Bad penalty. Bad coverage. Monty playing well. Need to play like they did on wknd @AllHabs

— Blain (@BlainPotvin_THW) March 22, 2017

Follow @AllHabs on Twitter