The Canadiens' depth is being challenged, but Ducharme came up with three effective defence pairs.
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• Montreal Gazette
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Dominique Ducharme pushed all the right buttons Monday as the Canadiens reached the midway point in the COVID-abbreviated season with a 4-2 win over the Winnipeg Jets at Bell MTS Place.
The interim head coach played mad scientist as he juggled his defensive pairings and found some instant chemistry.
With Ben Chiarot out of the lineup for 6-8 weeks wth a broken right hand, the Canadiens’ depth is being challenged, but Ducharme came up with three effective defence pairs.
He put heavyweights Shea Weber and Joel Edmundson together, reunited Jeff Petry and Brett Kulak and elevated Xavier Ouellet from the taxi squad to play with rookie Alexander Romanov.
Kulak and Petry played well in the bubble last summer and Kulak said getting back together was a confidence boost.
“He’s a phenomenal player (and) we’ve always had success when we’ve played together,” said Kulak. “It feels good to be back with him. Our play just kind of meshes well. Things went good tonight. It was a big win and hopefully we can keep building on it.”
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Kulak has played most of the season with Romanov and he said he liked what he saw of the young Russian against the Jets.
“The thing I liked about playing with Romy is that he’s assertive in his play,” said Kulak. “He’s never hesitant. He plays hard, he kills plays and he gets the puck moving. I thought he did the same thing tonight.”
Romanov and Ouellet had ice time in the 13-to-14-minute range and they did their best to catch Ducharme’s eye. They blocked two shots each and were each credited with three hits although it seemed Romanov should have had more because he spent a lot of time making life miserable for the Jets’ leading goal-scorer, Nikolaj Ehlers.
Ducharme also tinkered with his lines. Jesperi Kotkaniemi was between Josh Anderson and Jonathan Drouin. Anderson, who had guaranteed the Canadiens would be ready for this game, scored his 11th goal of the season, but it was only his second since Feb. 10.
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Kotkaniemi continues to improve with every game. He scored his fourth goal and won eight of 15 faceoffs. Tyler Toffoli scored twice, with his 17th going into an empty net.
There was another strong performance from Carey Price, who made 34 saves in his 700th NHL appearance.
“He’s been really good now for the last few weeks,” said Kulak. “When he gets feeling good, it seems like nothing’s going by him. It’s nice having him back there. He’s a leader on our team. He made some big saves and he’s making good plays, stopping the puck behind the net and making some good passes to us so we can get some breakouts done easy. It kind of boosts the whole morale of the team. When you see him playing like that, it makes you want to elevate your game.”
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Phil Danault missed part of the first period against Calgary Saturday and wasn’t 100 per cent for the last two periods but he obviously recovered from whatever ailed him. He took 20 faceoffs and won half of them while playing his usual strong defensive game.
With the win, the Canadiens reached the midway point in their season in the fourth and final playoff spot in the Canadian division with 33 points. They picked up ground on Winnipeg and Edmonton, who have 36 points, but the Oilers have played two more games. Montreal is only two points ahead of fifth-place Calgary but the Flames have played one more game.
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2021-03-16 12:21:32Z
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