And the first star ... Carey Price
Habs’ locker room all optimism and smiles on Sunday after shutout win
“Ca-rey! Ca-rey! Ca-rey!”
The first star had yet to be announced Saturday night after the Canadiens’ 3-0 win over the Buffalo Sabres, but the Bell Centre crowd already knew who it would be — Carey Price.
After missing 10 games with a lower-body injury, Price returned to action Saturday and stopped all 36 shots he faced from the Sabres for his first shutout of the season, improving his record to 4-7-1 after a tough start to the year even before the injury.
“I felt pretty good,” Price said in the dressing room after the game.
“I felt prepared more than anything,” the goalie added. “I spent a lot of time thinking about today and I’m just glad it all turned out well. A lot of preparation went into tonight. Injuries aren’t vacation. It took a lot to get ready for tonight and I got to move to the next one.”
The next one will be Monday night when the Columbus Blue Jackets visit the Bell Centre (7:30 p.m., TSN2, RDS, TSN Radio 690), but Price and the Canadiens can savour this victory for a little while.
It’s early in the season to talk about must-win games, but this sure seemed like one against the Sabres, who are in last place in the Eastern Conference and could have moved within one point of the Canadiens with a victory. Jeff Petry opened the scoring with a power-play goal in the first period, Alex Galchenyuk scored in the second period and Paul Byron scored short-handed in the third as the Canadiens ended a five-game losing streak (0-3-2).
Jonathan Drouin, who had two assists, was named the second star and Galchenyuk, with a goal and an assist, was the third star.
If there was a fourth star it would have been Paul Byron, who was able to light a fire under Drouin and Galchenyuk that wasn’t there when captain Max Pacioretty was on their line. In his first game with his new linemates, Byron had a goal and an assist and was plus-2. He helped Drouin and Galchenyuk end their three-game pointless streaks and Galchenyuk also ended an 11-game goal-less drought.
“He was Pauly tonight,” head coach Claude Julien said during his post-game news conference about Byron. “He continues to skate, scores a big goal for us shorthanded. That was a huge goal. When you just have a two-goal lead and the way Buffalo came out in the third, they get a goal they get a lot of hope there. So that was a pretty big dagger when he scored that goal short-handed.”
It was the sixth goal of the season for Byron and his blazing speed and work ethic looked like the missing ingredients on the Canadiens’ No. 1 line.
“I think I call myself a skilled grinder,” Byron said. “I think I can complement them pretty good. I kind of get in the gritty areas, I can support defensively, I can play down low centre so those guys don’t have to worry about that game. With my speed I can chase pucks down, attack the rush, net drive, go to the front of the net, and I think that just creates a little bit more space for them on the ice. Any time you get a chance to play with two skilled guys like that you got to seize the moment.
“There’s an expectation from me that I’m going to skate and work hard every night,” added Byron, who plays much bigger than his 5-foot-9 and 162 pounds. “I know I have enough skill to make plays, but I got to be smart with the puck and make sure that I’m doing the right things with the puck. When I have it, I try and feed it to them because the puck’s better on their stick than mine.”
When asked what made him think Byron would be a good fit with Drouin and Galchenyuk, Julien said: “We make decisions because, obviously, the other three together it just wasn’t working. … Sometimes you try something, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. Well, it wasn’t working, so we made the change.”
The change definitely worked. Canadiens GM Marc Bergevin has been taking a lot of heat this season — and for good reason — but claiming Byron off waivers from the Calgary Flames before the start of the 2015-16 season was a great move.
“I always thought I was better than just a waiver guy,” said Byron, who scored a career-high 22 goals last season and added 21 assists. “It takes a while to earn your role and your place on a team. I don’t know if we have a first line here. I think Pleky (Tomas Plekanec) takes the toughest matchups and then the other two lines kind of wait and see who you get. To play with those two players is an incredible opportunity and I’m happy to get it.”
But nobody was happier than Price Saturday after everything he’s been through this season. He definitely heard the Bell Centre fans chanting his name at the start of the game and again at the end.
“It was a nice homecoming.”
I kind of get in the gritty areas, I can support defensively, I can play down low centre so those guys don’t have to worry about that game.
There were a lot of smiling faces in the Canadiens’ locker room following a rare Sunday morning practice in Brossard.
The players had reason to be feeling good after Saturday night’s 3-0 win over the Buffalo Sabres at the Bell Centre with Carey Price stopping all 36 shots he faced in his first game back in goal after missing 10 games with a lower-body injury. The win ended a five-game losing streak (0-3-2) for the Canadiens, and Price’s performance was a reason for optimism going forward, even if it came against the worst team in the Eastern Conference. Price had allowed four or more goals in seven of his first 11 starts, and the shutout improved his record to 4-7-1 with a 3.44 goals-against average and .890 save percentage.
The Canadiens improved their record to 9-12-3 heading into Monday’s game against the Columbus Blue Jackets at the Bell Centre (7:30 p.m., TSN2, RDS, TSN Radio 690). More important, the Canadiens moved within four points of the Detroit Red Wings for third place in the Atlantic Division, which earns a playoff spot. After Monday’s game against the Blue Jackets, the Canadiens will play the Ottawa Senators Wednesday night at the Bell Centre and then play back-to-back games against the Red Wings Thursday in Detroit and Saturday in Montreal.
“We realize that this week three of the four games are against teams we want to catch (in the standings), so it’s a big week for us,” Julien said about the games against Ottawa and Detroit.
The Canadiens play only six Monday night games all season, including four at the Bell Centre, so Sunday is normally a day off for the players. But not this weekend with so many games on the schedule this week and little time for full practices.
“It was a good, quick skate, and now we can all go listen to Gally (Brendan Gallagher) text us about the Grey Cup because none of us are going to watch,” captain Max Pacioretty said after practice with a big smile. “He’s a big CFL fan … the only one.”
Pacioretty said the other Canadiens players are more into the NFL and their Fantasy League.
Pacioretty has now gone six games without a point and is a team-worst minus-12, but is happy to be back playing on a line with Phillip Danault at centre and Andrew Shaw on the right wing after a failed experiment by Julien putting the captain with Jonathan Drouin and Alex Galchenyuk.
“I really like playing with Phil,” said Pacioretty, who has 7-5-12 totals this season. “I think with matchups and stuff it benefits my game a little bit. I think I play a bit like a perfectionist. I feel like you have to build up good shifts in order to cash in on a goal, and it’s hard for me to play a game where sometimes you’re in your own end and then you get that one opportunity and you feel like you should put it in the back of the net. I’ve never really played that way and that was difficult sometimes when I was on the other line and we were getting different matchups. Probably easier matchups, but I felt like we were getting sheltered a bit. So this is just comfortable for me, and it’s all about me trying to find my game, and I think going back to what makes me feel comfortable can help.”
When asked why it didn’t work with Drouin and Galchenyuk, Pacioretty said: “I think all three of us try and play the same way. Those two don’t really go to the net a lot and Jo is definitely a perimeter player. I was trying to go to the net, and that’s not really my speciality.”
Paul Byron took Pacioretty’s spot with Drouin and Galchenyuk Saturday night, and all three registered two points. Galchenyuk ended an 11-game goal-less drought and added an assist, while Byron scored shorthanded and had an assist and Drouin picked up two assists.
“I think Pauly works well with them because he can hang out at the crease and kind of create time and space for them,” Pacioretty said. “I can do that at times, but I’m more of a distance shooter and I have to get my distance shots in order to do that as well. I think they’re benefiting from good matchups right now. We’ll be the first ones to tell you individually we didn’t have great games against Dallas and Nashville (last week). Those are two good teams that didn’t give us any time and space. Last night was different. Our line and their line found a little bit of time and space. I think both lines felt more comfortable and hopefully we can roll with this now.”
Pacioretty said he was headed home after practice Sunday to watch the NFL action and wait for Gallagher’s texts about the Grey Cup game.
On Monday night, the captain will be looking to end his sixgame pointless streak.