Canadiens – Lightning

It's the first time in franchise history that Montreal has had five rookies on the blue line in one game. Brian Wilde takes us deeper into the action ...

The Canadiens have two first-round draft picks and both are in position, at the moment, to be involved in the lottery. It’s an intriguing idea because no doubt Lafreniere in a Montreal uniform would excite the fan base. It is impossible to know who progresses and who does not, but there are so many high-quality players that just the math alone favours the Canadiens. The acquisition of Kirby Dach for what amounted to the 13th pick overall in sending Alexander Romanov to Long Island was a stroke of brilliance. This season, it should be thrilling again to see what the partnership can achieve as the trading deadline approaches. However, this is also about a lack of opportunity where Lafreniere is still on the third line with gusts to fourth line duty. The Canadiens were overmatched by an extremely good and experienced hockey team, so there’s not much to pile on about when fans already know the story of what is lacking. The rest, so far, and it is early in their careers, seem to be all third pair defenders, but they could easily develop into more. Barron is a terrific skater, but needs to show more physicality as the NHL level. It’s the first time in franchise history that Montreal has had five rookies on the blue line in one game. Kaiden Guhle, Arber Xhekaj, Jordan Harris, Jonathan Kovacevic, and for the first time this season Justin Barron all on the blue line in Tampa Bay. Stop four found Montreal dropping under .500 for the road trip with a loss in Tampa Bay.

Andrei Vasilevskiy made 25 saves to beat Montreal for the 11th consecutive time, Brayden Point had two goals, and the Tampa Bay Lightning defeated the ...

… LW Paul Byron (hip) has had some improvement over the last two weeks but is not yet skating. His new defensive partner, Zach Bogosian got his first point in 19 games with an assist and also was plus-3. Vasilevskiy turned aside Cole Caufield's power-play backhander from close range in the second. The centre has a goal in six consecutive home games, which is one shy of tying Nikita Kucherov’s franchise record. “At the end of the day, he's a difference-maker for us, especially proving it against this team that we played tonight. 22, 1927) and Toronto's Turk Broda (Dec.