Rangers blasted by Canadiens, 5-1

The Montreal Canadiens hammered the New York Rangers 5-1 in the battle of the top two teams in the Eastern Conference but were left sweating on the fitness of goaltender Carey Price.

Being without Price for this much time a year ago would have been a devastating blow for the Canadiens, but they really haven’t slowed down without him this season which is a testament not only to the play of Condon, but also the play of the entire team.

Another marquee matchup of the NHL’s elite goaltenders was witnessed at madison Square Garden Wednesday night.

Therrien’s opinion on this is interesting because what Lundqvist is doing for the Rangers so far this season is quite similar to what Carey Price did for the Canadiens last season.

Behind Price, who won 44 games, the Canadiens finished first in the Atlantic Division with 110 points. He was 7-10-0 with a 2.51 GAA and. The five goals also represented the highest output by a Rangers’ opponent this season.

Montreal would double their lead in the second period off a goal from an open Devante Smith-Pelly at the top of the crease, who just came off the bench. 5, Montreal, Galchenyuk 4, 1:29. All food for thought on turkey day as the Habs once again chew on the fact that they might again be without the best goalie in the land.

Last time, recently-waived netminder Dustin Tokarski got the nod (although he only appeared in one game before heading back to the St. John’s Ice Caps) – but the Canadiens have two other netminders in their system to consider.

“We’re very, very happy with the way we played”, Pacioretty said. “We’ve got to go through what made us have success early on and when we’re playing the way we need to, how we’re doing that and getting it straightened out”.

“We count on him to be our best player”, Rangers defenseman Marc Staal said.

Yet Vigneault frequently referred to the loss to the Canadiens through that stretch, which included a nine-game winning streak that fell one short of matching the franchise record.

Tonight just wasn’t the Rangers night at all, and their coverage in the defensive zone was absolutely horrendous.

“It was big because we ended up losing momentum the last 10 minutes of the second period”, Therrien said, referring to a goal by Rangers left winger Rick Nash that cut the lead to 2-1. It started with an terrible shift by Kevin Hayes, who committed an icing and then a turnover and glided back as Dan Boyle and Keith Yandle let Sven Andrighetto make it 1-0. “We have to figure out how we can correct that, and we get right back at it. We have a lot of hockey coming up in the next week and we have to get our “A” game back here and get it going”.

Pacioretty finished off the scoring, and finished Lundqvst’s night early when he tucked in a ideal pass from Galchenyuk on a power play midway through the third period.