Montreal Canadiens Dominate Canucks After Beliveau Tribute
By Jared Book
The Montreal Canadiens had their most dominating win of the season in a 3-1 win over the Vancouver Canucks.
War-On-Ice.com
The Canadiens dominated the possession statistics in this one, and they were led by their new number one line. Alex Galchenyuk, Max Pacioretty and Brendan Gallagher looked dominant, and boy were they ever.
Montreal had over 90 per cent of the shot attempts when they were on the ice at even strength. When Gallagher and Galchenyuk were on the ice, Vancouver had one shot. One. If that isn’t a vote of confidence for the new lines, I don’t know what is.
Oh, and by the way? They did it while playing more than any Canadiens line against Vancouver’s top line featuring the Sedin brothers and Radim Vrbata. P.K. Subban and Andrei Markov also had a part to play in that and they were fantastic as well.
Gallagher and Pacioretty scored the first and final goals for Montreal (Pacioretty’s goal was scored literally as time expired into an empty net) and Tomas Plekanec scored the winning goal on a feed from Sven Andrighetto.
Carey Price was great when he needed to be, especially in the games opening minutes. He was solid on a slow night for him, which sometimes for goaltenders can be harder than a night you are facing a lot of shots.
More from La Métropole Sports
- Montreal Impact Dominate Real Salt Lake, Win 4-1
- Montreal Impact v. Real Salt Lake Preview: News And Notes
- Kenny Cooper Out, Ambroise Oyongo In For Montreal Impact
- Quick Thoughts On The Montreal Alouettes CFL Draft
- Kenny Cooper Signed By Montreal Impact
Nathan Beaulieu and Michael Bournival also looked great in their return to NHL action. Sven Andrighetto also was very good. All three made a case that they should stay in the lineup even when all the injured and sick players return to the Canadiens lineup.
It was only one game against a Canucks team at the end of a seven game road trip, but consider the first test passed. Now, they need to continue this form on Friday against the Los Angeles Kings. The Kings just lost to the Buffalo Sabres, but as we all know, they also beat the Canadiens on back to back nights.
If the Canadiens can repeat this performance against the Kings, that would be something indeed.