Canadiens Lineup

Mike Hoffman – Nick Suzuki – Denis Gurianov

Harvey-Pinard – Jonathan Drouin – Josh Anderson

Rem Pitlick – Christian Dvorak – Jesse Ylonen

Michael Pezzetta – Chris Tierney – Alex Belzile

Mike Matheson – David Savard

Kaiden Guhle – Joel Edmundson

Jordan Harris – Johnathan Kovacevic

Sam Montembeault – Jake Allen

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Carey Price (knee), Paul Byron (hip), Sean Monahan (lower-body), Brendan Gallagher (lower-body), Jake Evans (lower-body), Juraj Slafkovsky (lower-body), Cole Caufield (shoulder), Arber Xhekaj (upper-body), Kirby Dach (lower-body), Chris Wideman (upper-body), Joel Armia (illness), Justin Barron (upper-body)

Game Report

What a difference a day makes! The Canadiens went from facing one of the best teams in the Western Conference on Thursday to one of the worst in Anaheim on Friday night.  But gone was all of the anxiety and speculation of the trade deadline. With Kent Hughes essentially opting out of participating in deadline activities, Montreal iced the same lineup at the Honda Centre that finished the game in Los Angeles the night before.

The Canadiens opened the scoring just 1:16 into the game off the stick of Jonathan Drouin. It was the first goal since January 1, 2022 for Drouin who tapped in a puck that squeezed through goaltender John Gibson. There were no calls about Drouin from GMs  prior to the deadline; a player who makes $5,500,000 and is on a once-every-15-months goal-scoring schedule.

After that point the Ducks looked a little unhinged committing unforced turnovers all over the ice. Gibson in the Anaheim net looked quite beatable on this night. But the Ducks found their legs and tied the score.

It stayed tied well into the third period despite numerous calls from the officials in the Canadiens favor. Unfortunately the Canadiens were unable to capitalize.

Montreal looked drained in this game managing just ONE high-danger scoring chance in the final 40 minutes of the game at 5-on-5. And the Canadiens lost the special teams battle going 0-for-3 on the power-play and giving up two goals while short-handed.

Up Next

The Canadiens have a rare Saturday off. They will complete their West Coast road trip on Sunday against the Vegas Golden Knights.

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