Mike Condon earned his first career NHL shutout last night as the Montreal Canadiens defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning 3-0. The entire team seemed inspired by the appearance of Carey Price at practice Thursday morning and it showed on the ice against the Lightning. David Desharnais opened the scoring in the first period while Torrey Mitchell scored a highlight reel goal early in the 2nd to make it 2-0. Condon stopped all 26 shots while earning the win, none more important than the penalty shot save on Ondrej Palat and breakaway save on Nikita Kucherov in the second frame to preserve the 2 goal lead. Condon appeared to be the calm, confident and composed goalie that we first saw back in the beginning of the season. Perhaps the presence of Carey Price or the signing of new goaltender Charlie Lindgren has sparked Condon. Phillip Danault scored an empty net goal to make it a 3-0 final score.
The Lightning did not show up for the game and the Canadiens were able to take advantage as they played an all too rare 60 minutes of hockey. Unfortunately though, the Injury Gods decided that the Canadiens have not had enough bad fortune this year and Nathan Beaulieu broke his thumb before the first period was over. The rest of the defense had to step up and played big minutes, especially when Darren Dietz took a five minute major for fighting in the second. Andrei Markov and Alexei Emelin have been playing some of their best hockey without the pressure of playoffs on the horizon. It makes one wonder if Markov had an injury of sorts in the middle season as he is playing excellent and smart hockey this last month of hockey To replace Beaulieu, the Canadiens have recalled Brett Lernout from the St. John’s Ice Caps. If P.K. Subban is unable to play on Saturday against the Florida Panthers, Lernout will be the 14th defenceman to line up on the blueline for the Canadiens this season. At 6’4… and 213 lbs, Lernout is a big and physical defenceman. He has 2 goals and 10 assists in 69 games for the Ice Caps in his first season of professional hockey.
The good news kept rolling in for the Canadiens as Brendan Gallagher and Daniel Carr will make their return to the lineup against the Panthers on Saturday. Gallagher will be re-united with Alex Galchenyuk and Max Pacioretty on the top line. They will have four games left to work on their chemistry in anticipation of next year. Daniel Carr will be eased back into the lineup playing with Michael McCarron and Phillip Danault on the fourth line. Carr and McCarron should have familiarity from playing together in St. John’s. The rest of the lineup will be:
Trios du #CH
— Jonathan Bernier (@JBernierJDM) April 1, 2016
Pacioretty-Galchenyuk-Gallagher
Eller-Plek-Mitchell
Byron-DD-Andri
Danault-McCarron-Carr
Matteau-Flynn-Brown#habs
Carey Price did address the media after practice. While he hopes to still play a game this season, he is still experiencing some of the symptoms from his injury. He won’t play unless he is 100% ready but it is looking more and more likely that the World Cup will be the next Price plays a game of hockey.
Price, still getting timing back: "I don’t want to wind up putting myself in a position where I’m scrambling and open myself up to anything"
— Arash Madani (@ArashMadani) April 1, 2016
Carey Price: “It’s been hard mentally. This has been the most trying year of my career. I feel more tired now than I do when I play hockey."
— Arash Madani (@ArashMadani) April 1, 2016
Carey Price: “It’s been hard mentally. This has been the most trying year of my career. I feel more tired now than I do when I play hockey."
— Arash Madani (@ArashMadani) April 1, 2016
Cheers & follow along! Follow @Jenbcutler