PHILADELPHIA—A bobble from Jeff Petry sent Philadelphia’s two most dangerous players in on a 2-on-1, and they worked the give and go to perfection before Carey Price made a miraculous toe-save to keep the puck out of Montreal’s net.
It was Flyers captain Claude Giroux throwing a perfect pass to Jakub Voracek and posting himself on Price’s backdoor for the return feed. It came, he shot, and Price stuffed him.
The Canadiens’ netminder pushed aside 29 more shots, giving his team its best opportunity to win in its final game of a miserable road-trip through Colorado, Arizona and Las Vegas. He had practically no chance on Nolan Patrick’s power goal at 7:18 of the second period, and absolutely none on Voracek’s shot to tie the game 2-2 at 18:35 of the third period.
The puck clipped Canadiens captain Max Pacioretty’s stick in the high slot, dipped through Canadiens defenceman Karl Alzner’s legs and squeaked through Price.
It was 1:26 into overtime that Voracek delivered again, this time with a laser into the roof of Price’s net to keep his team’s nine-game point streak intact and hand the Canadiens their sixth straight loss and 12th in their last 13 road games.
"No one likes losing, and we’re disappointed we’re losing," said Canadiens coach Claude Julien after the game. "Still, players of ours continue to improve. Our young players, they’re doing good work. At the same time we have some guys playing good hockey, we have guys who are always making mistakes in every game that are hurting us or making us lose games. So long as we don’t clean those mistakes up, it’s going to be tough. They’re often the same errors, often from the same players, but at a given point those players need to realize that they need to be better for us to get points."
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There was nothing egregious from anyone on the Montreal side on either of Voracek’s goals.
Alzner left Patrick all alone on what was probably the easiest of the seven goals he’s scored this year. And the list of mistakes he and Montreal’s other veteran defencemen made in this game will make for an extra-long video session with Julien come Wednesday.
David Schlemko might as well have laid out a welcome mat for Flyers defenceman Shayne Gostisbehere on a first period rush. Joe Morrow was turned inside-out and outside-in on two occasions. At one point in the second period, Giroux walked around Alzner like he wasn’t even there and setup Travis Konecny with what should’ve been a sure goal. Jordie Benn took a bad penalty to give the Flyers the power play they scored on to tie the game 1-1. And it was remarkable Petry’s giveaway, which led to the Giroux-Voracek give and go, didn’t cost the Canadiens anything more than few heart palpitations.
"We were a little better," said Morrow before finishing his thought with, "but we just weren’t good enough."
It’s no secret that the Canadiens blue-liners just aren’t good enough.
"We’re not good enough," has been a mantra of Julien’s, uttered again on Tuesday—and for the umpteenth time this season.
Not even the great Shea Weber, at full health and at the very height of his abilities, could change that. That’s been obvious in the 26 games he’s played this season and it’s been magnified in the 33 games he’s missed.
"It’s the little details in this game that make a big difference, and those little details right now just aren’t there on a consistent basis," said Julien.
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It’s why Price has to be superhuman to make the difference everyone expects him to be as a goaltender who wears the franchise tag. One who is set to begin a record contract with the team at the beginning of next season.
He fought as hard as he could to make it happen on this night, contorting himself in every direction—even fighting through a 90 m.p.h. shot that struck him in the temple and left him stunned just seconds before the Flyers tied the game 1-1.
"He played phenomenal again tonight and he saved some goals that I would’ve never thought he’d have been able to stop," said Morrow.
Price kept the Canadiens at 0-0 before Charles Hudon broke into the Flyers’ zone, turned and setup a free shooting lane for Alzner. Petry tipped Alzner’s shot to open the scoring. And Price was other-worldly to buy the Canadiens enough time before Paul Byron finished a three-way passing play on Montreal’s second shot of the third period, which came at the 8:45 mark.
That was good stuff from the Canadiens. So was the play of 19-year-old defenceman Victor Mete, who skated 19 minutes—or more than he had in any other game since Oct. 20.
"Parts of the game we played really well," said Price. "It’s just mental collapses that always seem to cost us."
There’s no bigger reason for why the Canadiens find themselves in 28th place in the 31-team NHL, 13 points out of the second wild-card position in the Eastern Conference and 27 points out of third place in the Atlantic Division.
