Montreal Canadiens

Down 1-0, Habs are not ready to panic. Game 2 vs Rangers Preview
April 14, 2017, 1:46 PM ET [569 Comments]
Jennifer B Cutler
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Panic does not seem to be a word in Montréal Canadiens head coach Claude Julien’s vocabulary. A 2-0 loss in game one of the playoffs to the New York Rangers does not have him reaching to pull the alarm. In 2011 Canadiens fans might remember all too well how their team jumped out to a 2-0 series lead in the first round against Julien’s Boston Bruins, only to have the Bruins come back to defeat them in seven games and go on to win the Stanley Cup. Not to mention that his Bruins would also lose the first two games of the Stanley Cup Final to the Vancouver Canucks before charging back to win the series and Cup.







Instead, Julien possesses a calm demeanor. He is not easily frazzled. He has confidence in his game plan and his players. Julien believes that his team did everything but score in game one and if they stick with it the players will be rewarded. He sees no reason to change things up, perhaps much to the dismay of others who would like to see Alex Galchenyuk be given a proper chance in the top nine, nevermind the top six forwards. Julien believes Nikita Nesterov played a good enough game not to bring in Brandon Davidson on the bottom defensive pairing. That type of confidence by the head coach is contagious with the players who will want to reward him with a better game execution from start to finish on Friday night.

In the first period on Wednesday the Canadiens came out hard and supported one another on the fore check, sending two forwards in to retrieve the puck. They almost completely got away from that game plan in the second period and in the third their effort was simply not always there. They were playing safe so as not to make a mistake so that the Rangers would not build on their lead. They were not playing to win.

Tonight, the Canadiens will once again come out hard and the Rangers will likely be ready for them. In game one neither team was able to take advantage of their opportunities on the powerplay. If game two is anything like game one, goals will be hard to come by with Carey Price and Henrik Lundqvist in nets. Whichever one is able to get their powerplay going is likely to win the series.

The Canadiens lines remain unchanged:

Pacioretty-Danault-Radulov
Byron-Plekanec-Gallagher
King-Shaw--Lehkonen
Galchenyuk-Ott-Martinsen

Markov-Weber
Benn-Petry
Beaulieu-Nesterov

Price

While it is understandable that Julien is trying to have a balanced attack with four lines capable of scoring, it should not come at the expense of Galchenyuk who needs skilled players in order to get the most out of him. He played well in game one and fore checked hard with Steve Ott and Andreas Martinsen. However, there needs to be a dual threat on the same line as Galchenyuk as teams will just cover him and take their chances with Ott and Martinsen. If the Canadiens offense has still not been able to solve Lundqvist midway through the game, Julien must take a page of Michel Therrien’s handbook and plug in his line blender. Put Galchenyuk back with Andrew Shaw and Artturi Lehkonen as the trio were successful in their five or so games together. Or perhaps put Galchenyuk with Tomas Plekanec and Brendan Gallagher. They have previous experience playing together and have had some success in the past. It is simply impossible to see how the Canadiens will win a series with Galchenyuk on the fourth line…

Puck drops at 7pm.

Cheers and enjoy the game!