Canadiens vs Jets: Price Shines With Shutout

The Montreal Canadiens ended a busy 48 hours with a big 3-0 win over the Winnipeg Jets at the Bell Centre on Tuesday night.

Carey Price made 29 saves for the shutout and several of them were huge saves that we’ve become accustomed to seeing from Price. He bailed out P.K. Subban and Andrei Markov several times and kept the score at 0-0 until they could get on the board.

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Lars Eller finished a rush from Jiri Sekac as that line continues their solid play. It was Eller’s team-leading third game-winning goal and second in as many games. If this line continues playing like this, it would be a huge boost to the entire team.

They are looking like a tremendous duo, and Brandon Prust doesn’t look completely out of place either although I think Eller and Sekac is one of those duos that will work no matter who the third forward is on that line. Prust actually played 19 minutes and led all Canadiens forwards in ice time.

Alex Galchenyuk continued his great play, scoring a big goal to make the score 2-0. He was also the only Canadiens player to be positive in terms of even strength Corsi. Nathan Beaulieu – who played well with Tom Gilbert – was the only other Canadiens player who wasn’t negative as he finished at 50 per cent.

Tomas Plekanec added an empty netter and led all Canadiens with six shots on the night.

It wasn’t a great possession game for the Canadiens, but they continue to win. The Corsi at even strength was 36-27 after two periods, so it wasn’t an outrageous split and a 1-0 game in the third had Winnipeg push harder for a goal.

The one thing that sticks out for me is the lack of confidence from some of the Canadiens forwards. Max Pacioretty looks lost a little bit. He missed a couple of chances and David Desharnais also seemed to struggle. That line hasn’t scored in a few games and they might be pressing.

I’m sure they will figure it out, and the emergence of the third line really eases the pain for them going forward.

The Canadiens will now face Boston in two days at the Bell Centre where it is expected Sergei Gonchar will make his Canadiens debut.