There was nary a dry eye in the house on Thursday night as the Montreal Canadiens paid tribute to P.K. Subban as he made his emotional return to the Bell Centre with the Nashville Predators. When it comes to ceremonies, the Canadiens continue to set the standard for everyone else. Their 90 second montage honored Subban from the moment he was drafted and demonstrated why the love affair with the city of Montreal is far from over. Subban may be a Predator and sit on the visitor bench, but he will always be a citizen of Montreal.
Bon retour P.K.! / Welcome back P.K.! pic.twitter.com/PFijB3hsGP
— Canadiens Montréal (@CanadiensMTL) March 3, 2017
All the feels. Every single one of them. pic.twitter.com/qYJTR0TI4U
— NHL (@NHL) March 3, 2017
However, as much as Subban will always be loved and revered by Canadiens fans, the fickle group are still loyal to their bleu-blanc et rouge. What mattered more than anything at the end of the night was that the Canadiens came away with two points and fortunately the team was able to come from behind for the third game in a row to come away, leading to their fourth consecutive win and the first in regulation under new head coach Claude Julien.
Unfortunately the game itself carried over little of the emotion of the pre-game ceremony as both teams came out flat. The Predators and Canadiens were content with playing safe hockey, neither team willing to give an inch and scared to make a mistake. Andrew Shaw took a costly penalty towards the end of the first period that culminated with Ryan Ellis scoring a powerplay goal off of a Subban feed to give the Predators the 1-0 lead. Brendan Gallagher scored for the first time since December 26th to tie the game in the third period while Paul Byron helped the Canadiens avoid overtime for the fourth straight game by capitalizing on his breakaway opportunity with 8.3 seconds left in the game to make it a 2-1 final victory for Montreal.
Puck props and flops:
Props:
P.K. Subban - Let’s start with the obvious, Subban was the main attraction at the Bell Centre on Thursday night. The evening had been circled on Canadiens fans calendars ever since the 2016-2017 schedule came out. Subban’s last moment in a Canadiens uniform was a frightening one at that, suffering a neck injury and carried off the ice on a stretcher back on March 10th, 2016.
Carey Price - Somehow Price was only the second start of the game despite making 24 saves and keeping the Canadiens in the game when they were trailing for much of it. Since the Canadiens bye week which coincided with their coaching change, Price has a goals against average of 1.475, save percentage of .947 and has not allowed more than two goals in any game. If the Canadiens have any hope of going deep into the playoffs this year, they will need more of these performances from Price to get them there.
Brendan Gallagher - It was likely Gallagher’s best game since he returned from his fractured hand injury back in February. Gallagher was struggling before his injury with only six goals in 39 games played, well below his usual output. Against the Predators, Gallagher had five shots on net, the first time that he has has that many shots in a game since he recorded six against Dallas on January 4th, the same night that he suffered his injury. The Canadiens absolute need Gallagher to not just get back his scoring but to contribute by playing his aggressive game. He has developed a reputation as a pest, an annoyance to opposing goaltenders and defensemen with his relentless hustle and determination to stand his ground at the tip of the crease. That extra edge has been missing from his game for much of the season. If Gallagher can get going down the final stretch of the regular season then it will be as if Canadiens general manager had made a move at the trade deadline for an offensive player. The team needs additional scoring from their bottom nine and it starts with Gallagher.
Paul Byron - It took fourteen games for Byron to get his 15th goal of the season but it could not have come at more opportune time as the Canadiens desperately wanted to come away with the full two points against the Predators. In a chase for the puck with Matt Irwin, Byron realized that he could have a breakaway if he dug in and pushed himself into another gear. That extra drive gave him the advantage as he broke in alone on Pekka Rinne as he was able to squeeze the puck through five hole to give the Canadiens the win in the dying seconds of the game. That extra push was missing from Byron’s game in the last month and hopefully that goal will turn the tide for him as the Canadiens look for others to step up and provide complimentary scoring.
Flops:
Andrew Shaw and the Canadiens first penalty kill - Once again Shaw made a poor decision and took a needless and ultimately costly penalty. His play is much improved under Julien but those types of penalties are really going to hurt come Springtime. However, I very much disagree with the decision to put newcomer Dwight King on the Canadiens first penalty kill unit in the first period of his first game with the Canadiens. King was caught out of position on Ellis’s goal but he was seemingly put in a position there to fail. King improved as the game went on as he became more comfortable on the ice. He looked much better on the Canadiens second penalty kill and there is little doubt that he will help the team in that regard. Interestingly, neither Byron or Tomas Plekanec played a second defending a powerplay against the Predators...
The Canadiens Powerplay - For the second consecutive game, the Canadiens top powerplay consisted of Andrew Shaw, Alex Galchenyuk and Alexander Radulov up front with Max Pacioretty playing the point alongside Shea Weber. For the second consecutive game those five players came away empty on every opportunity with the man advantage. The added problem with loading up the top unit is that it makes the second powerplay unit that much weaker. At first the second unit forwards consisted of Plekanec, Phillip Danault and Brendan Gallagher. They looked even worse together than the first unit. By the time of the Canadiens second powerplay Plekanec had been taken off and replaced with Artturi Lehkonen. Danault has just one powerplay point all season. Nathan Beaulieu has 10 powerplay points this season. Perhaps these units would be an improvement:
Pacioretty-Galchenyuk-Radulov Markov-Weber
Lehkonen-Shaw-Gallagher Weber-Petry
That is until Charles Hudon or perhaps Chris Terry arrives… Speaking of, the Canadiens extended Terry’s contract on Friday, signing him to another one year, one way deal:
DETAILS -> https://t.co/7LEv03lImV #GoHabsGo https://t.co/1MO0MshjSp
— Canadiens Montréal (@CanadiensMTL) March 3, 2017
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Meanwhile at the Canadiens practice today, a number of veterans took therapy days and so the lines that they rushed are somewhat meaningless. Of note though:
Steve Ott is teaching Alex Galchenyuk how to win a faceoff...
— Eric Engels (@EricEngels) March 3, 2017
If Ott alone can help Galchenyuk in the faceoff circle than the trade for him would be worth it on that merit alone...
The Canadiens will visit the New York Rangers on Saturday night before heading on a Western Canada road trip.
Cheers and follow along! Follow @Jenbcutler