Brossard, QUEBEC — The Montreal Canadiens held an optional practice in Brossard Saturday. Alex Galchenyuk, Brendan Gallagher, P.K. Subban, Andrei Markov, Alexei Emelin, Tom Gilbert, Jeff Petry, Dale Weise and Carey Price elected not to participate.
Basking in the comfort of a 2-0 advantage in this Stanley Cup Playoff series with the Ottawa Senators, coach Michel Therrien was in a jovial mood.
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When asked about whether or not the Canadiens are approaching Game 3 as a new beginning, Therrien chuckled and quipped: "I’m sure you probably know my answer."
A reporter interjected to speak on Therrien’s behalf, towing the company line with: "We’re just going to take this one game at a time."
After Therrien jokingly invited the reporter to join him at the podium, he continued to outline his team’s mentality.
"Honestly, that’s the way it is. That’s been our philosophy since training camp; it’s not because we’re going to the playoffs. We know it’s going to be a good hockey game from both teams (Sunday) and both teams are going to compete hard."
In Ottawa, where the Senators had just a select group of players on the ice for practice, Dave Cameron told reporters that goaltender Craig Anderson could very well make his entry to this series in Game 3.
Therrien wasn’t interested in divulging whether or not the potential change represented a seed of doubt successfully planted in the Senators’ minds by his team in the first two games.
While Therrien was all smiles, the players that did participate in practice meant business in the room after.
"When it comes down to it, it’s been two good hockey games." said defenceman Nathan Beaulieu. "They were both one-goal games that could’ve gone either way, so we’re not getting complacent. We know what we have to do in Game 3."
Alternate captain Max Pacioretty, who returned from a suspected concussion suffered April 5 to contribute a goal in Game 2, doesn’t want to see his team fall into the trap of being comfortable with their early success in this series.
"All of us need to come together to make sure that’s not the case," said Pacioretty. "We’ve been in this position before. As a core group we’ve played a lot of playoff series’ together at this point to know that the hardest games to win are the ones that are later on in the series."
Respect for how the Senators overcame a historically large deficit in the standings to earn a playoff berth was reiterated as a caution against complacency.
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"It’s like they were down 7-0," said Beaulieu of the Senators, who were 14 points out of a playoff spot in February. "They have a lot of character in that room. We know they’re going to come out with their best game (Sunday). We’ll be ready."
One player who might not be ready is forward Pierre-Alexandre Parenteau. Though he participated in practice, he remains day-to-day with an upper-body injury.
The Canadiens leave for Ottawa Saturday afternoon.
