Canadiens Lineup

Joel Armia – Nick Suzuki – Cole Caufield

Jonathan Drouin – Christian Dvorak – Josh Anderson

 Tyler Toffoli – Jake Evans – Brendan Gallagher

Mathieu Perreault – Cedric Paquette – Artturi Lehkonen

Alexander Romanov – Jeff Petry

Ben Chiarot – David Savard

Brett Kulak – Chris Wideman

Jake Allen – Sam Montembeault

Alex Belzile, Adam Brooks, Sami Niku

Joel Edmundson (undisclosed), Carey Price (player assistance program), Paul Byron (hip), Mike Hoffman (lower-body), Mattias Norlinder (lower-body), Shea Weber (multiple injuries)

Game Report

After two road losses, the Canadiens returned to Montreal for their home opener in front of 21,105 at the Bell Centre. The fans were loud for the opening ceremonies and got louder, breaking into a “CA-REY, CA-REY” chant when the team’s best player was shown on the Jumbotron.

Now, if that’s not enough to fire the home squad out of a Rocket, then what is? But the Canadiens meandered through a sleepy first period registering just five shots on goal.

Montreal ran into penalty trouble in the second, taking three straight infractions. The Rangers scored on one of the power-plays and a one-goal lead seemed to be a sizable hill to climb. The Canadiens penalty-kill is desperately missing Shea Weber and Joel Edmundson having given up five goals on 13 chances this season.

For a brief 26 seconds in the third period the game was tied. But Mika Zibenejad and Alexis Lafreniere took advantage of David Savard and then Habs had their third straight loss.

Montreal didn’t allow much at even strength with the Rangers managing just three high danger scoring chances while 5-on-5. But they didn’t create a lot either and have now scored just three goals total in their first three games.

What will turn the tide?

It’s early in the season but digging out of an 0-3 start won’t be easy. Teams winless in their first three starts have rarely made the playoffs, just twice in the past five years setting aside the bubble tournament of 2020.

Montreal should get some help next week as Mike Hoffman is expected to make his Canadiens debut. But without the benefit of a training camp, how much impact can he have?

There are team issues that one player cannot solve. The head coach seemed fine when riding the wave of the Habs playoff run but seems a little out of his depth when it comes to diagnosing and fixing this short slide as the new season begins. It should be obvious that, if the Canadiens remain on an 82-goal pace for the team for the season, they won’t go far.

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