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Game 30: Canadiens vs Rangers AKA A Big Win in the Big Apple

December 6, 2019, 10:10 PM ET [44 Comments]
Karine Hains
Montreal Canadiens Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Claude Julien had to change his lines tonight, with Kotkaniemi joining Drouin, Byron and Mete on the injured list, the Canadiens' head coach had no choice, he had to mix things up a little and those were the lines and pairing featured:



Julien kept his first line but gave the two Finnish wingers to Max Domi and put Suzuki at centre between Cousins and Weal while Hudon played alongside Thompson and Peca. On the blue line, the two minute munchers were together while Kulak and Petry played on the second pairing and the two rookies formed the third pairing.

Tonight, the Canadiens provided a solid effort the whole way through. So much so that they took 33 shots on net, 11 in each period. They were also great in the face-off circle, winning 60% of the draws, dishing out 25 hits and blocking 18 shots. Even with these blocks though, 30 shots made their way to Carey Price who was only beaten once on a breakaway. Tonight, we saw the right Price, the one that can steal a game and that oozes confidences. In the end, he had a .967 save percentage and made 7 very important saves on the penalty kill.

The Habs scored first in the initial period when the first line joined forces to allow Brendan Gallagher to get his 13th goal on the season. The narrowest of leads lasted until early in the second period when Otto Leskinen made quite the blunder at the Blueshirts blue line allowing Brendan Smith to make his way towards Carey Price's net on his own. He was patient with the puck and tied things up. Of course, Leskinen is young and will make mistakes but this one was a costly one and he looked so disappointed with himself... someone else saw that though, Gallagher like the great leader that he is, spoke to the rookie and cheered him up no doubt telling him that it would be alright and that they would get that goal back. I've said it before and I'll say it again, to me, Gallagher is a captain. Such a great leader be it by exemple or by the way he handles himself with his teammates or the media, I have nothing but admiration for the man.



The score stayed 1-1 from 2:30 in the second until there was only a minute and 7 seconds left in the game when Nate Thompson scored the game-winning goal thanks to a nice feed from Nick Cousins.



Thankfully, the Habs were able to shut the door and hold on for a 2-1 win. Amazingly enough, this win puts the Canadiens back in the Atlantic division's 2nd place even though the Panthers, the Sabres and the Lightning all have game in hands.

In his post game comments, Claude Julien declined to talk about Max Domi's performance tonight, saying he'd rather talk about the win but I feel Domi's showing should still be discussed. Tonight, number 13 played exactly the same amount of minutes as Brendan Gallagher and took 4 shots on goal just like him but his level of effort just wasn't the same. At times, Domi was just gliding out there and that is not him. With 30 games played in what is a contract year for him, it really is time that he kicks it up a notch and becomes last year's Domi again.

The Canadiens won't play until Tuesday in Pittsburgh before hosting the Sens in Montreal on Wednesday. It will be interesting to see which goaltender will play which game. Primeau did well in his first career game and Price was Price tonight... speaking of goaltenders though, Keith Kinkaid played his first game with the Laval Rocket tonight and it didn't go according to plan. Remember the plan? Kinkaid was to go play in the AHL to build up his confidence? Well, tonight, he gave up 4 goals in the first period and 5 in total in a 5-2 loss...
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