The Montreal Canadiens played a great 40 minutes of hockey against the Boston Bruins last night. Paul Byron scored in the 1st period to give the Canadiens a 1-0 lead. However, they let Boston seize the momentum when Loui Eriksson tied the score on a shorthanded breakaway in the 3rd period, which was followed by Landon Ferraro netting the game winning goal just 42 seconds later. Patrice Bergeron would score an insurance goal to give Boston a 3-1 win over the Canadiens. The Bruins have Tuukka Rask to thank for keeping them in the game as Rask finally broke his Canadiens jinx and backstopped the Bruins to the win, stopping 32 of the 33 shots that he faced.
Mike Condon cannot be blamed for the loss. He played a stellar game and made some excellent saves. Unfortunately he was beaten by a breakaway goal and two lapses of defensive play. Condon deserved a better fate to the game. The first time that Condon stepped in for the injured Carey Price, the Canadiens were scoring an average of 3 Goals a game during those 8 matches. In the past 6 games that he has stepped in for Price, the Canadiens are averaging just 2 goals scored a game. Most likely, the lack of offensive production has a lot more to do with the absence of injured forward Brendan Gallagher than the play of Condon. Michel Therrien has been tinkering with the lineup and so far has not found a solution that works for everyone.
Last night Alex Galchenyuk played with Max Pacioretty and Sven Andrighetto and the results were mixed. Galchenyuk and Pacioretty were each a minus two on the night and were often up against Boston’s top line centered by Patrice Bergeron and as well as Zdeno Chara who was in fine form against the Canadiens. They did generate some opportunities and Galchenyuk was 50% in the faceoff circle while he also blocked 5 shots. However, Therrien would only comment that:
Asked about #Habs Galchenyuk, -2 tonight, Therrien said, then repeated without elaboration: "Tough night."
— Dave Stubbs (@Dave_Stubbs) December 10, 2015Should Therrien have done more to shield Galchenyuk from Boston’s best considering the Canadiens had last change at home? Will he give the line another chance tonight against the Detroit Red Wings? The matchups won’t get any easier for Galchenyuk and tonight he would face either Pavel Datsyuk’s line or that of Henrik Zetterberg, pick your poison. The line of Lars Eller-Tomas Plekanec-Paul Byron did play quite well. They seemed to have a scoring chance just about every time they were on the ice. The reunited 3rd line of Tomas Fleischmann-David Desharnais-Dale Weise had their moments and looked quite comfortable together again. The 4th line of Daniel Carr-Brian Flynn and Christian Thomas looked good for part of the game, but once Thomas lost his cool and took an unnecessary retaliation penalty in the 2nd period their play and ice time went down. Daniel Carr played solidly though in his 2nd NHL game and led all Canadiens forwards with 4 hits. Thomas though will be a healthy scratch tonight as Charles Hudon will make his highly anticipated NHL debut.
The decision to scratch Thomas came as no surprise this morning. However, that’s not the only lineup change that Therrien is making. Defenceman Nathan Beaulieu will be a healthy scratch for the first time this season. Before the game Therrien said he had spoken to Beaulieu about bringing consistency to his game. Perhaps while many of us were fanning over his natural ability to skate with the puck and jump in the play at the seemingly appropriate time, Therrien was not as impressed. History tells us that Therrien seems to prefer his defencemen making the safe play, see case study 1: his early treatment and usage of P.K. Subban. However, on a team that has been recently struggling for offence, the benching of Beaulieu seems ill-timed. Brian Wilde of CTV said it well:
Looks like Beaulieu out in Detroit. He's not a Therrien type player. Emelin messed up so badly on Bergeron goal but he is a MT type. Oh well
— BrianWilde (@BWildeCTV) December 10, 2015Alexei Emelin did play a strong 40 minutes of hockey. However, I would not have expected anything less from Emelin as he always plays the Bruins hard and strong. He and Jeff Petry struggled in the 3rd period but Therrien was not going to limit their minutes. I think that Greg Pateryn is a legitimate NHL defenceman and will be a staple and part of the future for the Canadiens. However, one cannot say that having Pateryn in the lineup over Beaulieu makes the Canadiens a better team tonight.
The Canadiens will be in tough tonight against Detroit. Somehow they have to find a way to shake off their disappointing loss and be ready to help Dustin Tokarski who will be making his first start of the season. Hopefully Tokarski was able to regain his confidence and get into game shape while in St. John’s. The Canadiens have now lost 3 in a row and the schedule does not get any easier…
5 Questions for Tonight’s game:
1) Will the Canadiens score more than 2 goals against Detroit?
2) How many goals will Tokarski give up? Pick either a) 2 or less b) 3 or more
3) Will Therrien change the lines tonight other than adding Hudon to the 4th line?
4) Can Galchenyuk/Pacioretty get on the board tonight?
5) Montreal’s powerplay has now fallen out of the top 5 in the league. Will they be able to get going again vs Detroit?
Puck drops at 7:30pm.
Cheers & Enjoy the game! Follow @Jenbcutler