Due to one game last week, this version of the Canadiens weekly is going to cover the game from last Saturday and then the additional four games from the previous week.
Ready? Here we go…
Canadiens News
On Wednesday morning, the Montreal Canadiens announced that Head Coach Claude Julien has been relieved of his duties as Head Coach as well as Assistant Head Coach Kirk Muller. The team would announce that Dominique Ducharme has been named the interim Head Coach. This was a move that was somewhat expected given the fact that the Canadiens had been the 2nd most penalized team at the time of the firing. The front office saw that a change needed to be made and to be quite honest, I am a little surprised that this happened only six weeks into the season.
Game Recaps
Saturday, February 20th: vs. Toronto Maple Leafs
The Toronto Maple Leafs would be seeing blue as they face the Canadiens clad in their Reverse Retro uniforms. After a scoreless first period the floodgates would open as the Habs would get goals from Jesper Kotkaniemi and Paul Byron, while Auston Matthews would net a pair of goals, and tallies from Travis Boyd and Mitch Marner would give the Leafs the 4-2 lead. Then in the third period Alexander Kerfoot would net his fourth of the season to give the Maple Leafs the 5-2 lead, and while Tyler Toffoli would net his 11th of the season for the Canadiens, the Leafs would hold on for the 5-3 victory.
Toronto Maple Leafs Line-ups
| Joe Thornton | Auston Matthews | Mitchell Marner | ||
| Zach Hyman | John Tavares | William Nylander | ||
| Jimmy Vesey | Alexander Kerfoot | Ilya Mikheyev | ||
| Pierre Engvall | Travis Boyd | Jason Spezza | ||
| Morgan Rielly | TJ Brodie | |||
| Jake Muzzin | Justin Holl | |||
| Travis Dermott | Zach Bogosian | |||
| Frederik Andersen | ||||
| Michael Hutchinson |
Scratched: Mikko Lehtonen, Nic Petan
Injuried: Jack Campbell (lower body), Wayne Simmonds (wrist)
1st Period
| TOR Penalty | Zach Bogosian | for | slashing | 2 min minor |
| MTL Penalty | Victor Mete | for | Hooking | 2 min minor |
| MTL Penalty | Ben Chiarot | for | Delay of Game-puck over glass | 2 min minor |
1st Period Stats
| Toronto – 0 | Montreal – 0 | ||
| Faceoffs | 7 of 17 | 10 of 17 | |
| Power Play | 0 for 2* | 0 for 1 | *1:04 left on 2-man adv; :41 left on DoG pen |
| Shots | 13 | 10 | |
| Hits | 2 | 15 |
2nd Period
| TOR PPG | Auston Matthews (17) | Assisted by | Mitch Marner (20) | Morgan Rielly (13) | 1:05 |
| TOR PPG | Travis Boyd (3) | Assisted by | Joe Thornton (6) | Auston Matthews (10) | 1:20 |
| MTL Goal | Jesperi Kotkaniemi | Assisted by | Tomas Tatar (5) | Joel Edmundson (3) | 3:24 |
| MTL Goal | Paul Byron (1) | unassisted | 3:57 | ||
| TOR Goal | Mitch Marner (9) | Assisted by | Auston Matthews (11) | Zach Bogosian (2) | 7:31 |
| MTL Penalty | Victor Mete | for | Tripping | 2 min minor | 14:24 |
| TOR PPG | Auston Matthews (18) | Assisted by | Morgan Rielly (14) | 15:05 |
2nd Period Stats
| Toronto – 4 | Montreal – 2 | |
| Faceoffs | 18 of 36 | 18 of 36 |
| Power Play | 3 for 3 | 0 for 1 |
| Shots | 21 | 26 |
| Hits | 9 | 30 |
3rd Period
| TOR Goal | Alexander Kerfoot (4) | Assisted by | Jason Spezza (7) | John Tavares (11) | 13:36 |
| MTL Penalty | Josh Anderson | for | Roughing | 2 min minor | 16:05 |
| TOR Penalty | Jake Muzzin | for | Interference | 2 min minor | 16:05 |
| MTL Goal | Tyler Toffoli (11) | Assisted by | Alexander Romanov (3) | Brendan Gallagher (4) | 18:34 |
| MTL Penalty | Tyler Toffoli | for | Slashing | 2 min minor | 19:42 |
3rd Period Stats
| Toronto – 5 | Montreal – 3 | |
| Faceoffs | 30 of 58 | 28 of 58 |
| Power Play | 3 for 4 | 0 for 1 |
| Shots | 27 | 33 |
| Hits | 17 | 44 |
Game Highlights
Sunday, February 21st: at Ottawa Senators
In Ottawa the Senators and Montreal Canadiens would do battle, and in the first both teams would trade goals as Nick Suzuki would strike in the opening minutes for the Habs, and Drake Batherson would tie the game up for the Sens. Then after a scoreless second period Josh Norris would give the Senators the lead, but Corey Perry would score to tie the game two and send the game to overtime. In the extra frame it would be Brady Tkachuk with his sixth of the season to give the Senators the 3-2 victory over the Canadiens.
Montreal Canadiens Line-up
Jonathan Drouin — Nick Suzuki — Josh Anderson
Tyler Toffoli — Phillip Danault — Brendan Gallagher
Tomas Tatar — Jesperi Kotkaniemi — Joel Armia
Corey Perry — Jake Evans — Paul Byron
Ben Chiarot — Shea Weber
Joel Edmundson — Jeff Petry
Victor Mete — Alexander Romanov
Jake Allen
Carey Price
Scratched: Arttuti Lehkonen, Brett Kulak
Injured: None
Ottawa Senators Line-up
Brady Tkachuk — Josh Norris — Connor Brown
Nick Paul — Colin White — Evgenii Dadonov
Tim Stutzle — Derek Stepan — Drake Batherson
Micheal Haley — Chris Tierney — Austin Watson
Braydon Coburn — Nikita Zaitsev
Mike Reilly — Artem Zub
Erik Brannstrom — Erik Gudbranson
Matt Murray
Joey Daccord
Scratched: Thomas Chabot, Josh Brown, Christian Wolanin
Injured: Marcus Hogberg (lower body)
1st Period
| MTL Goal | Nick Suzuki (4) | Assisted by | Josh Anderson (4) | 1:17 | |
| MTL Penalty | Paul Byron | for | Hi-sticking | 2 min minor | 2:37 |
| OTT Goal | Drake Batherson (4) | Assisted by | Artem Zub (3) | 9:47 | |
| OTT Penalty | Too Many Men | served by | Brady Tkachuk | 2 min minor | 11:40 |
| MTL Penalty | Nick Suzuki | for | Hooking | 2 min minor | 14:36 |
1st Period Stats
| Montreal – 1 | Ottawa – 1 | |
| Faceoffs | 8 of 18 | 10 of 18 |
| Power Play | 0 for 1 | 0 for 2 |
| Shots | 9 | 12 |
| Hits | 8 | 7 |
2nd Period
| MTL Penalty | Phillip Danault | for | Roughing | 2 min minor | 4:06 |
| MTL Penalty | Ben Chiarot | for | Hooking | 2 min minor | 10:22 |
| OTT Penalty | Artem Zub | for | Hooking | 2 min minor | 15:04 |
| MTL Penalty | Jeff Petry | for | Cross checking | 2 min minor | 18:50 |
| OTT Penalty | Derek Stepan | for | Cross checking | 2 min minor | 18:50 |
2nd Period Stats
| Montreal – 1 | Ottawa – 1 | |
| Faceoffs | 16 of 42 | 26 of 42 |
| Power Play | 0 for 2 | 0 for 4 |
| Shots | 23 | 20 |
| Hits | 16 | 20 |
3rd Period
| OTT Goal | Josh Norris (4) | Assisted by | Nikita Zaitsev (7) | Brady Tkachuk (7) | 3:33 |
| OTT Penalty | Mike Reilly | for | Hi-sticking | 2 min minor | 8:16 |
| MTL Goal | Corey Perry (2) | Assisted by | 14:35 |
3rd Period Stats
| Montreal – 2 | Ottawa – 2 | |
| Faceoffs | 27 of 60 | 33 of 60 |
| Power Play | 0 for 3 | 0 for 4 |
| Shots | 32 | 33 |
| Hits | 25 | 27 |
Overtime
| OTT Goal | Brady Tkachuk (6) | Assisted by | Drake Batherson (6) | Erik Brannstrom (2) | 3:30 |
Overtime Stats
| Montreal – 2 | Ottawa – 3 | |
| Faceoffs | 28 of 62 | 34 of 62 |
| Power Play | 0 for 3 | 0 for 4 |
| Shots | 32 | 39 |
| Hits | 25 | 27 |
Game Highlights
Tuesday, February 23rd: at Ottawa Senators
In Ottawa the Montreal Canadiens would come to town to face the Senators, and in the first period Shea Weber would score for the Habs, but goals from Drake Batherson and Brady Tkachuk would give the Sens the 2-1 lead. Then in the second period Erik Brannstrom would net his first career NHL goal, however, Weber’s second of the game and a tally from Jonathan Drouin would tie the game at three. In the third period Tkachuk would net his second of the game, and Tyler Tofolli would score to keep the game tied and sent to overtime. After a scoreless five minutes of bonus hockey, it would be Tim Stutzle in the shootout to give the Senators the 5-4 victory over the Canadiens.
Montreal Canadiens Line-up
| Jonathan Drouin — Nick Suzuki — Josh Anderson |
| Tyler Toffoli — Phillip Danault — Brendan Gallagher |
| Tomas Tatar — Jesperi Kotkaniemi — Joel Armia |
| Paul Byron — Jake Evans — Corey Perry |
| Ben Chiarot — Shea Weber |
| Joel Edmundson — Jeff Petry |
| Brett Kulak — Alexander Romanov |
| Carey Price |
| Jake Allen |
Scratched: Artturi Lehkonen, Victor Mete
Injuried: None
Ottawa Senators Line-up
| Brady Tkachuk — Josh Norris — Connor Brown |
| Nick Paul — Colin White — Evgenii Dadonov |
| Tim Stutzle — Derek Stepan — Drake Batherson |
| Micheal Haley — Chris Tierney — Austin Watson |
| Thomas Chabot — Nikita Zaitsev |
| Mike Reilly — Artem Zub |
| Erik Brannstrom — Erik Gudbranson |
| Matt Murray |
| Joey Daccord |
| Scratched: Josh Brown, Christian Wolanin, Braydon Coburn |
| Injured: Marcus Hogberg (lower body) |
| COVID-19 protocol: Ryan Dzingel |
1st Period
| OTT Goal | Drake Batherson (5) | Assisted by | Derek Stepan (5) | Artem Zub (4) | 01:36 |
| MTL Penalty | Jesperi Kotkaniemi | for | Charging | 2 min minor | 08:32 |
| OTT PPG | Brady Thachuk (7) | Assisted by | Drake Batherson (7) | Tim Stützle (5) | 09:57 |
| OTT Penalty | Drake Batherson | for | Interference | 2 min minor | 11:28 |
| OTT Penalty | Brady Thachuk | for | Fighting | 5 min major | 13:56 |
| MTL Penalty | Ben Chiarot | for | Fighting | 5 min major | 13:56 |
| MTL Goal | Shea Weber (3) | Assisted by | Jake Evans (1) | Corey Perry (3) | 16:03 |
| MTL Penalty | Josh Anderson | for | Roughing | 2 min minor | 20:00 |
1st Period Stats
| Montreal – 1 | Ottawa – 2 | ||
| Faceoffs | 15 of 23 | 8 of 23 | |
| Power Play | 0 for 1 | 1 for 1* | *Ottawa starts 2nd with 2 min PP |
| Shots | 13 | 14 | |
| Hits | 13 | 14 |
2nd Period
| MTL Penalty | Shea Weber | for | Hi-sticking | 4 min dbl minor | 00:59 |
| OTT PPG | Erik Gudbrannstrom (1) | Assisted by | Colin White (5) | Connor Brown (7) | 03:41 |
| MTL Goal | Jonathan Drouin (2) | Unassisted | 04:52 | ||
| MTL Goal | Shea Weber (4) | Assisted by | Phillip Danault (7) | Brett Kulak (4) | 10:06 |
| OTT Penalty | Thomas Chabot | for | Hooking | 2 min minor | 17:39 |
2nd Period Stats
| Montreal – 3 | Ottawa – 3 | |
| Faceoffs | 20 of 32 | 12 of 32 |
| Power Play | 0 for 2 | 2 for 4 |
| Shots | 21 | 33 |
| Hits | 25 | 20 |
3rd Period
| OTT Penalty | Josh Norris | for | Hooking | 2 min minor | 03:29 |
| MTL GOal | Tyler Toffoli (12) | Assisted by | Phillip Danault (8) | Joel Edmundson (4) | 08:06 |
| OTT Goal | Brady Tkachuk (8) | Assisted by | Josh Norris (8) | Thomas Chabot (7) | 10:11 |
3rd Period Stats
| Montreal – 4 | Ottawa – 4 | |
| Faceoffs | 31 of 59 | 28 of 59 |
| Power Play | 0 for 3 | 2 for 4 |
| Shots | 33 | 37 |
| Hits | 32 | 30 |
Overtime
No Goals
No Penalties
Overtime Stats
| Montreal – 4 | Ottawa – 4 | |
| Faceoffs | 32 of 63 | 31 og 63 |
| Power Play | 0 for 3 | 2 for 4 |
| Shots | 36 | 39 |
| Hits | 34 | 30 |
Shootout Results
| Rd 1 | OTT: Brady Tkachuk | NO | Tied 0-0 |
| Rd 1 | MTL: Corey Perry | NO | Tied 0-0 |
| Rd 2 | OTT: Tim Stützle | YES | OTT 1-0 |
| Rd 2 | MTL: Jonathan Drouin | NO | OTT 0-0 |
| Rd 3 | OTT: Josh Norris | YES | OTT 2-0 |
| Rd 3 | MTL: – | – | OTT 2-0 |
Game Highlights
Thursday, February 25th: at Winnipeg Jets
In Winnipeg, Montreal visits for the the first game in a two game set. In the first period, Joel Armia nets a pair of goals to give the Canadiens a 2-0 lead. In the second period, Kyle Connor nets a power play goal at 5:37 to come within a goal. Montreal takes the 3-1 lead when Tomas Tatar nets a power play goal of his own at 7:33. Winnipeg then gets two goals, a goal from Kyle Connor and Blake Wheeler, to tie the game 3-3. Then in the third period, Winnipeg takes their first lead in the contest when Ben Thompson nets his first goal of the season. Pierre-Luc Dubois then gives the Jets a two goal lead with his fourth goal of the season. The Jets then seal the win with an empty net goal from Mark Schiefele to give Winnipeg the 6-3 win over the Montreal Canadiens.
Game line-ups
1st Period
| MTL Goal | Joel Armia (3) | Assisted by | Alexander Romanov (4) | Paul Byron (4) | 13:45 |
| MTL Goal | Joel Armia (4) | Assisted by | Jonathan Drouin (11) | Jeff Petry (11) | 17:29 |
1st Period Stats
| Montreal – 2 | Winnipeg – 0 | |
| Faceoffs | 9 for 18 | 9 for 18 |
| Power Play | 0 for 0 | 0 for 0 |
| Shots | 8 | 8 |
| Hits | 9 | 8 |
2nd Period
| MTL Penalty | Shea Weber | for | Delay of Game – Puck over Glass | 2 min minor | 04:55 |
| WPG PPG | Kyle Connor (9) | Assisted by | Blake Wheeler (13) | Mark Schiefele (17) | 05:37 |
| WPG Penalty | Neal Pionk | for | Hi-sticking | 2 min minor | 06:15 |
| MTL PPG | Tomas Tatar (5) | Assisted by | Jesperi Kotkaniemi (7) | Jeff Petry (12) | 07:33 |
| WPG Goal | Kyle Connor (10) | Assisted by | Paul Stastny (7) | Nikolaj Ehlers (10) | 11:50 |
| WPG Goal | Blake Wheeler (6) | Assisted by | Neal Pionk (13) | Pierre-Luc Dubois (2) | 14:31 |
| MTL Penalty | Jeff Petry | for | Charging | 2 min minor | 20:00 |
2nd Period Stats
| Montreal – 3 | Winnipeg – 3 | ||
| Faceoffs | 14 of 35 | 21 of 35 | |
| Power Play | 1 for 1 | 1 for 2* | *WPG Starts 3rd Period with 2 min PP |
| Shots | 13 | 19 | |
| Hits | 12 | 10 |
3rd Period
| MTL Penalty | Ben Chiarot | for | Hi-sticking | 2 min minor | 04:12 |
| WPG Goal | Ben Thompson (1) | Assisted by | Mason Appleton (6) | Adam Lowry (7) | 06:37 |
| WPG Penalty | Blake Wheeler | for | Hooking | 2 min minor | 07:29 |
| MTL Penalty | Joel Edmundson | for | Slashing | 2 min minor | 10:24 |
| WPG Goal | Pierre-Luc Dubois (4) | Assisted by | Mathieu Perreault (5) | Andrew Copp (9) | 12:37 |
| WPG Penalty | Nikolaj Ehlers | for | Fighting | 5 min major | 14:26 |
| MTL Penalty | Corey Perry | for | Fighting | 5 min major | 14:26 |
| WPG EN Goal | Mark Schiefele (113) | Assisted by | Blake Wheeler (14) | Andrew Copp (10) | 18:22 |
3rd Period Stats
| Montreal – 3 | Winnipeg – 6 | |
| Faceoffs | 21 of 52 | 31 of 52 |
| Power Play | 1 for 2 | 1 for 4 |
| Shots | 21 | 31 |
| Hits | 19 | 15 |
Game Highlights
February 27th, 2021: at Winnipeg Jets
In Winnipeg, Montreal looks to get back on the winning track. After a scoreless first period, Winnipeg gets on the board when Nikolaj Ehlers gets his 11th goal on the season and Montreal will answer when Nick Suzuki gets his fifth goal of the season to tie contest 1-1. In the overtime frame, Paul Stastny scores the game winner as the Jets get the 2-1 win over the Canadiens.
Game line-ups
1st Period
No Goals
No Penalties
1st Period Stats
| Montreal – 0 | Winnipeg – 0 | |
| Faceoffs | 11 of 24 | 13 of 24 |
| Power Play | 0 for 0 | 0 for 0 |
| Shots | 14 | 7 |
| Hits | 10 | 7 |
2nd Period
| MTL Penalty | Shea Weber | for | Tripping | 2 min minor | :32 |
| WPG Penalty | Sami Niku | for | Hooking | 2 min minor | 04:21 |
| MTL Penalty | Jeff Petry | for | Interference | 2 min minor | 05:38 |
| MTL Penalty | Jeff Petry | for | Tripping | 2 min minor | 09:04 |
| WPG PPG | Nikolaj Ehlers (12) | Assisted by | Andrew Copp (11) | 10:38 | |
| WPG Penalty | Pierre-Luc Dubois | for | Elbowing | 2 min minor | 11:33 |
| MTL Goal | Nick Suzuki | Assisted by | Joel Armia (4) | 15:13 |
2nd Period Stats
| Montreal – 1 | Winnipeg – 1 | |
| Faceoffs | 26 of 49 | 23 of 49 |
| Power Play | 0 for 2 | 1 for 3 |
| Shots | 27 | 16 |
| Hits | 19 | 10 |
3rd Period
No Goals
No Penalties
3rd Period Stats
| Montreal – 1 | Winnipeg – 1 | |
| Faceoffs | 32 of 67 | 35 of 67 |
| Power Play | 0 for 2 | 1 for 3 |
| Shots | 41 | 18 |
| Hits | 26 | 15 |
Overtime
| WPG Goal | Paul Stastny (4) | Assisted by | Nikolaj Ehlers (11) | l | :36 |
Overtime Stats
| Montreal – 1 | Winnipeg – 2 | |
| Faceoffs | 32 of 68 | 36 of 68 |
| Power Play | 0 for 2 | 1 for 3 |
| Shots | 41 | 21 |
| Hits | 26 | 15 |
Game Highights
Analysis of the Week
Montreal is still taking careless penalties between the Delay of Game calls, the tripping calls, and the hooking calls. As stated with the Julien firing, the Habs are one of the most penalized teams in the League. One would think that after the week off between the contest on February 13th and their next contest on the 20th, that some of those areas would be cleaned up. When they were one of the top two teams in the North Division, they have now slipped to fourth place in the division.
An area that does need cleaning up aside from the penalties is the when they are on the penalty kill as well as when they are on the power play. The special teams has been lacking a bit and that is an area where they were excelling in the first month of the season.
With the new bench boss, it will only be a matter of time to see if things will change in Montreal or if there will be some rumblings made on a shake-up in the team.
Montreal currently is 9-6-5 (23 pts, .575%) in the North Division and in the last ten games, the Canadiens have gone 2-5-3.
Upcoming Contests This Week:
Tuesday, March 2nd: Ottawa Senators – 7p ET
Thursday, March 4th: Winnipeg Jets – 7p ET
Saturday, March 6th: Winnipeg Jets – 7p ET
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