All was not well in Habs nation after a disastrous showing against the Bruins on Monday and most everyone was expecting a better performance and it certainly was. Claude Julien was clearly not please after the last game and he tweaked his line-up a bit. Victor Mete, freshly back from Laval was back in the line-up, Jordie Benn joined Shea Weber on the first pairing (yes, that's logical from healthy scratch to first pairing) and Charles Hudon was back in the line-up after being scratched for 9 consecutive games. Juulsen was of course out since he was sent down to Laval, Brett Kulak, Matthew Peca and Nicolas Deslauriers were the spare parts. The lines and pairings were therefore as follows:
La formation projetée du match de ce soir.
— Canadiens Montréal (@CanadiensMTL) December 20, 2018
The projected lines for tonight's game.#GoHabsGo pic.twitter.com/N6MXMIsXRc
The Canadiens came to play tonight, they were a force right out of the gate. Lafontaine might have written: "Rien ne sert de courir il faut partir à point" but there's an English saying that goes: "Slow and steady wins the race". The Habs were steady for the first 40 minutes but stopped moving in the 3rd period unfortunately.
Gallagher had said after the last game that he had played the worst game of his carrer and he had a bounce back performance scoring the opening goal on a masterful deflection of a Petry shot along with 3 shots and 2 takeaways. Carey Price was great, just as he was Monday, 24 saves on 26 shots with a save percentage of .923. However, early in the second period he turned the puck over to the Avs on what can only be described as a brain fart and that changed the game. Before then, the Habs were thoroughly dominating both in the shots department and on the scoreboard. In the end, the Canadiens had 36 shots but failed to put some traffic in front of Grubauer who saved 35 shots with a .972 save percentage and showed that he is a very reliable goalie. The Avs starter received the first star of the night.
On the plus side, Gallagher's goal was scored on the power play which had been silent for much too long. It was however the lone goal in 4 power play opportunities. Whether we like it or not, the Habs seem to be missing a quarterback who can move the puck up ice easily as this is not Weber's forte. The Antichambre crew on RDS were saying that Markov was great at this and it's hard to disagree with them but good old Andrei is long gone and it's time to look towards the future, not the past.
It was a tough night at the office for Mike Reilly, an unfortunate icing and a mishandling of the puck at the opposition's blue line is what he'll be remembered for. As for Charles Hudon, he doesn't look like he fits in on the 4th line but there is no room for him on the 3rd, one has to wonder if he'll end up on another team before the end of the season.
It's worth noting that the Tricolore challenged the Avalanche's game-winning goal claiming that there was goaltender interference on Price but unsurprisingly, the goal was allowed. Canadiens' fans might have a new "favourite" referee, T.J. Luxmore was officiating tonight and after his infamous embellishment called on Lehkonen, it's not reassuring to see him on the game sheet.
The Habs will be back on the ice tomorrow night in Glendale and they'll face former Habs Alex Galchenyuk (who is now playing on the wing for the Coyotes by the way). I would not be surprised to see an excellent performance by Max Domi tomorrow night...