The Montreal Canadiens defeated the Boston Bruins by a score of 4-2 on Saturday night. The Bruins were coming off a disheartening 6-2 season opening loss to the Winnipeg Jets while the Canadiens beat Toronto 3-1 in their first game of the season. The Bruins were still without Zdeno Chara and Dennis Seidenberg on defence and they continued to struggle without their veterans. Canadiens head coach Michel Therrien decided not to make any changes to his lineup.
Here are my Props & Flops from the game:
Props:
The Canadiens powerplay connected on its first opportunity as it took David Desharnais 11 seconds into the man advantage to score a goal. Therrien had Desharnais in Lars Eller’s place on the powerplay, playing alongside Alex Galchenyuk and Alex Semin
Flop:
After the initial success, the Canadiens powerplay reverted back to its old ways and ended the evening only 1-8, despite a five minute major in the 3rd period when Ryan Spooner took a 5 minute major and an additional minute of 5-3 two man advantage when Brad Marchand decided to take an undisciplined slashing minor while he was on the penalty kill. The Canadiens set up went from bad to worse as player movement slowed down and the Bruins had chances to score shorthanded.
Props:
To the entire line of Eller-Galchenyuk-Semin. Eller scored two goals, including the game winner while Galchenyuk had three assists and Semin recorded his first points in a Canadiens uniform with two helpers as well. This line was dynamic in the offensive zone and rarely were caught in their own end. The chemistry continues to build each and every game for this line but the foundation is there.
Flop:
The Canadiens defencemen times on ice. With the Canadiens playing back to back in Ottawa tomorrow and 4 games coming in 7 nights (Oct 11 vs Ott, Oct 13 vs Pitt, Oct 15 vs NYR and Oct 17 vs Det), does Andrei Markov really need to be playing 25:02? Yes there were 8 powerplay opportunities. However, the Canadiens finally have a solid 2nd pairing unit of Jeff Petry and Nathan Beaulieu and on the front end of a back to back, they should have been used more often - especially in the 3rd period. Petry played just over 21 minutes and Alexei Emelin played just over 18 minutes. Those numbers are ok. It will be interesting to see if Therrien makes any changes to the backend tomorrow night in Ottawa.
Props:
Congratulations to Tomas Plekanec as his empty net goal was his 500th NHL point in 763 games. In a contract year, what can we expect from Plekanec? The same day in and day out effort, consistency and production that fans have gotten accustomed to. His line with Max Pacioretty and Brendan Gallagher is being matched up against other teams top lines and so it is no surprise that Plekanec led all forwards with 20:07 of ice time, especially considering his play on both special team units.
Flop:
Alex Galchenyuk’s ice time was again under 15 minutes, coming in at 13:52 and just 2 seconds more than Desharnais. Galchenyuk had over 5 minutes on the powerplay but just 8:36 at even strength, this unacceptable. The case could have been made that he Therrien was easing him in as center. However, Galchenyuk has risen to the challenge and looks more than comfortable at center. He is leading the team with 4 points through the first two games. Yes, he had a weaker night in the faceoff circle compared to the game in Toronto. This is why having Lars Eller on the same line is such an advantage. As Galchenyuk struggled with only a 29% success rate, Eller was much stronger winning 63% of his draws. Desharnais also struggled and only won 38% of his draws.
Props:
Carey Price was sharp when he needed to be and backstopped the Canadiens to their win. It was a much quieter night as he only faced 21 shots. He didn’t have to be at his best but he still was. If you haven’t read this piece by Arpon Basu on the NHL.com, I highly encourage you to so. The Habs recognize that they need to support him more and strongly feel that they have the ability to do so.
I've felt sentiment behind this a few times in #Habs room, but never expressed like this. http://t.co/297DExxKMi pic.twitter.com/UCAusT50yO
— Ðrpon Basu (@ArponBasu) October 10, 2015Flop:
While Torrey Mitchell was trying to defend his teammate, he took a match penalty with under a minute to go in the game. At that point in the game, the Canadiens had just taken a 4-1 lead on Plekanec’s empty net goal. As per usual, Bruins coach Claude Julien put his fourth line out and Zac Rinaldo felt the need to cheap shot Brian Flynn. While I admire Mitchell for sticking up for his buddy, he might face additional discipline from the league for his slew-foot. Mitchell is normally very cool and collected, known for his speed rather than his physicality. He should have known better than to retaliate with less than 40 seconds to go in the game... No good can come from that... Neither here nor there:
- Claude Julien became the 1st coach to gamble and lose on the coach’s challenge. Patrice Bergeron ever so slightly nudged Price’s mask and it was enough from the referees that it interfered with his ability to stop the puck.
Official explanation on the Bruins disallowed goal. pic.twitter.com/cbZICNd84C
— Ðrpon Basu (@ArponBasu) October 11, 2015- David Pastrnak is a keeper for the Bruins. The 19 year old forward is talented and the Bruins have to be happy with his development.
- The Bruins were up to their old tricks last night as Zac Rinaldo filled the physical void along with Max Talbot. the Bruins lost their cool when they felt the game get out of their grasp, especially after they lost the challenge and Eller scored shortly afterwards...
5 Questions heading into tonight’s game versus the Ottawa Senator:
1) Whose place will Paul Byron take in the lineup tonight as is expected to make his Habs debut? Will he be taking Mitchell’s spot or Brian Flynn’s in the lineup? Devante Smith-Pelly has been playing very well in his limited minutes and they need his physicality against Ottawa 2) Will Mike Condon win his 1st NHL start as he gets the call tonight in Ottawa? Everyone is looking forward to seeing if he can continue his winning ways and strong play in the regular season. Dustin Tokarski for his part, started and won the St John’s Ice Caps season opener, backstopping them to a 3-1 victory.
3) Will Tomas Fleischmann record his first point with the Canadiens against Ottawa? So far his play has been okay but he hasn’t done anything to stand out.
4) Will Therrien make any unexpected lineup changes such as on defence tonight? Eventually Greg Pateryn or Jarred Tinordi will need to get in a game…
5) Which team will win the special teams battle tonight? The Canadiens have allowed a shorthanded goal in both games so far…
* I’ll come back later and update with any lineup notes and changes...
Puck drops at 7pm tonight in Ottawa.
Cheers & follow along! Follow @Jenbcutler