David Savard is in, and it’s Gustav Lindström who exits.
First period
- The top line had an excellent shift to begin each period last night, so it’s odd that Martin St-Louis decided to start the Jake Evans trio for this one.
- Struble shoves Philip Tomasino to the ice, showing off the strength he possesses.
- Jesse Ylönen attacks the Predators one-on-five, right to the middle of the ice as he does. He ends up with a shot, and a Habs power play.
- It’s a short power play as Juraj Slafkovský takes a penalty on a short-handed counter-attack.
- Habs back to the power play as Evans is high-sticked.
- What did Jake Evans’s head ever do to all these opponents?
- All it means is that the Canadiens get to go zero-for-two on less that two minutes of man-advantage time.
- The penalty-box attendants are going to ask for a raise as the doors are opened for a fourth time, this time for Gallagher, who must pay for that drawn call earlier.
- The door opens early to let Gallagher out because Colton Sissons has opened the scoring with a great tip of a shot that was going well wide.
- It looks like the mere return of Savard will not fix the penalty kill on its own.
- The one guy who booed all the way through the Kings game on Thursday seems to be back tonight.
- Mike Matheson gets turnstiled, but recovers to swipe the puck away with his stick. Luke Evangelista fell down while trying to jump around him, and I don’t believe that should have been a penalty.
- Another penalty. Nashville. Holding the stick. If the NHL is going to crack down on something new, it probably should be that. This one gets called against a team on a power play.
- An abbreviated power play later, the Habs are 0/3.
- St-Louis is going to the tablet. Maybe creating an online ad for a power-play coach.
- Roman Josi stands up Sean Monahan after a dump-in. The attendant can relax as the ref’s arm stays down.
- Kaiden Guhle’s point shot gets deflected by Christian Dvorak off the crossbar. It would be okay for the Canadiens to get a bounce every now and then.
- Despite all the penalty calls, it was a fairly quick period.
Second period
- Gallagher gets knocked down chasing a dump-in. That’s the one things these refs aren’t calling tonight, which isn’t great when playing another team employing the 1-3-1.
- Maybe Gallagher has just reached his league quota for the month.
- Gallagher gets his elbow up on a flyby of Sissons. He’s been feeling particularly violent the last couple of days after the Kidney cross-check to Jeff Skinner last night. Sissons joins him in the boxes for a similar thing.
- Nick Suzuki gets the puck to the slot on the four-on-four but refuses the shoot. He must have forgotten he scored in last night’s game from a similar spot.
- Savard tried the power-play drop-pass at four-on-four. Dangerous.
- Sissons makes it 2-0 with the game back at five-on-five, on a long rebound from Allen. The Canadiens are mustering very little in the way of an attack tonight.
- Jake Evans gets a chance, but it’s turned aside by Juuse Saros.
- The defence finally breaks into a three-on-one for Montreal. Sean Monahan can’t accept Josh Anderson’s pass.
- The Canadiens turn the puck up ice. The referee is very animated in making a call … against the Predators’ bench. I guess he just really had to get that out of his system even though Montreal held possession.
- Zero goals, Four opportunities.
- Every pass reception is a struggle tonight.
- Slafkovský absorbs a hit before collecting the puck and looking to make a play. He is, quite literally, learning to stand on his own two feet.
- The final minutes of the second period have begun to see the Canadiens take more control of the puck.
- The Canadiens score. It’s immediately waved off for goaltender interference as Gallagher lunged into the crease. At least they know such a thing is possible now.
- Evans gets the goal back on the next shift. His pass to Monahan didn’t get through, but he followed up, regained the puck, and backhanded it home. The Canadiens have build a bit of momentum here.
- Twenty more minutes like these last six or seven, and they may just break this back-to-back slump
Third period
- Anderson makes a nice move to the net and gets taken down before he can get a shot. No call.
- Mitchell Stephens had one of the rushes that helped earn him the nickname “Clutchell” in our EOTP Slack chat. A hard drive to the outside requires a shoulder save from Saros.
- Montreal has the control of the game in the third. They’ve even overtaken the shot lead after it was 22-11 midway through the second.
- One of the best shifts the top line has had tonight just doesn’t quite connect for a chance, but there was potential there.
- The Predators are completely gassed here. There’s either going to be a goal or a penalty. Hopefully a goal; you don’t want them gaining momentum from their PK.
- And there’s the penalty. William Carrier stuck his knee out on Monahan, and goes off for tripping. Monahan looks alright.
- Matheson is too aggressive trying to keep the puck in the zone and allows a breakaway. That close to a back-breaking short-handed goal.
- As feared, the Predators are indeed gaining some momentum off their penalty kill.
- Nashville is just surviving at five-on-five. The Michel Therrien special.
- Michael McCarron kills about 30 seconds by pinning the puck against the boards against the top line.
- The Canadiens get a couple of late chances, but they couldn’t maintain the pressure that had Nashville on its heels in the middle of the third. Yet another loss in the second game of a back-to-back. The final score is 2-1.
EOTP 3 Stars
3) Someone sneak into his office and rename his “intermission speeches” folder to “pre-game speeches”
2) It’s the giving season
1) The star this game deserves
