Canadiens’ offence struggles again
The skinny: Peter Budaj’s first start at the Bell Centre didn’t go the way he planned, but the Canadiens’ backup goaltender wasn’t the goat in Montreal’s 2-1 loss to the Florida Panthers Sunday night. While the Canadiens’ offence struggled over the first two periods, the Panthers scored twice in the second period. Tomas Kopecky found Jesse Winchester alone in front of the net for the Panthers’ first goal at 4:44 and Nick Bjugstad had too much time to shoot when he beat Budaj with a
knuckleball at 7:33. Offence in neutral: The Canadiens are 1-3-0 in their last four games and the offence has been missing in action during that stretch. The Canadiens have scored only two goals in regulation time in their last 13 periods and Alex Galchenyuk has scored both of them. Galchenyuk gave the Canadiens a ray of hope when he scored a power-play goal at 2:28 of the third period. He beat Scott Clemmensen on a goalmouth scramble after the Panthers’ third-string goaltender stopped shots by P.K. Subban and Brian Gionta. It was Montreal’s first powerplay goal in six games. For what it’s worth, the Canadiens won the special teams battle, scoring once on four opportunities but failing to capitalize on a two-man advantage for 35 seconds in the third period. The Montreal penalty-killing unit, which ranks fourth in the NHL, killed off the two Florida power plays. Slow start: The Canadiens were outshot 14-8 in the opening period and things didn’t get much better in the second. Montreal held Florida to six shots but two of them went in the net and the Canadiens
mustered only four shots. Injury updates: George Parros will be out of the lineup indefinitely. The preliminary indication is that Parros suffered a concussion during his fight with the Islanders’ Eric Boulton Saturday night in Uniondale, N.Y. The Panthers played most of the game with five defencemen after Erik Gudbrasnson left the game with a suspected groin injury late in the first period. He hobbled off the ice after being tied up in the corner. Losing ground: The Canadiens came out of the week- end in third place in the Eastern Conference standings but they are only two points ahead of Tampa Bay and the Lightning hold two games in hand. What’s next: The Canadiens are home to the Phoenix Coyotes Tuesday ( 7:30 p.m., TSN Habs, RDS, TSN Radio 690). The team goes on the road for the pre-Christmas portion of a six-game road trip with games Thursday in St. Louis and Saturday in Nashville.