The Montreal Canadiens were unprepared to face the potent offense of the Tampa Bay Lightning and it cost them the game.

GAME RECAP | Montreal Canadiens 3 vs Tampa Bay Lightning 5 | Final

Canadiens Lineup

Forwards

22 Cole Caufield - 14 Nick Suzuki - 20 Juraj Slafkovsky
15 Alex Newhook - 28 Christian Dvorak - 17 Josh Anderson
70 Tanner Pearson - 91 Sean Monahan - 11 Brendan Gallagher
55 Michael Pezzetta - 71 Jake Evans - 40 Joel Armia

Defensemen
8 Mike Matheson - 26 Johnathan Kovacevic
21 Kaiden Guhle - 52 Justin Barron
72 Arber Xhekaj - 54 Jordan Harris

Goaltenders

Starter: 34 Jake Allen
Alternate: 35 Sam Montembeault 

Out of the lineup

Scratches: Jesse Ylonen, Cayden Primeau

Injuries: Carey Price (knee), Chris Wideman (back), Kirby Dach (knee), David Savard (hand), Rafael Harvey-Pinard (lower-body)

Game Report

Nikita Kucherov scored his 10th goal of the season on a one-timer, an unstoppable blast just 22 seconds into tonight's game. It was the first shot on goal by Tampa.

With just over seven minutes gone in the first period, Steven Stamkos made a clean offensive zone entry. Stamkos lost the puck, but Kucherov easily took it away from Alex Newhook and made a cross ice pass to Victor Hedman. The defenseman moved the puck to Stamkos who quickly spun and fired the puck. Jake Allen made a good pad save but the rebound went directly to Nick Paul who had a tap in for the second goal.

Less than two minutes later, Juraj Slafkovsky was in the box after taking a bad penalty for holding. A shot by Alex Barre-Boulet deflected off Mike Matheson's skate past Allen for a power play goal. It was 3-0.

With just over six minutes left in the first period. Mikey Eyssimont broke in on goal elevating a sharp-angled shot over Allen for the fourth Lightning goal. Eyssimont won a puck battle against two Canadiens at the blueline, Mike Matheson and Tanner Pearson. His shot clearly surprised Allen with Anthony Cirelli cruising in the crease waiting for a pass.

That was all for Allen who made way for Sam Montembeault. Prior to the game, the 33-year-old goaltender was presented with the Molson Cup for his outstanding performances in the month of October.

A knee jerk reaction would place all the blame on Allen, who had entered the game with a .927 save percentage. Apart from the fourth goal, there was little he could do given the performance of teammates in front of him.

Matheson was on the ice for all four Tampa goals in the first period. He was also on for four goals in three periods against the St. Louis Blues on Saturday night. After a decent start, the play of the 29-year-old Canadiens defenseman has been dreadful.

What about the role of the coaching staff who repeatedly fail to have their team prepared to start a game? In each of the last three games, the Canadiens were playing a team on the back half of games on consecutive nights. On paper, Montreal should have been the fresher team but they have lost all three matches.

The Canadiens have not won in regulation time since October 23rd, a span of eight games.

Game Statistics

Canadiens (5-5-2)
Shots: 26
Face-off %: 52.6
Power play: 1/6
Penalty minutes: 19
Hits: 19
Blocks: 12

Lightning (6-3-4)
Shots: 32
Face-off %: 47.4
Power play: 2/5
Penalty minutes: 21
Hits: 13
Blocks: 17

Scoring Summary

Canadiens Scorers
1st period: --
2nd period: --
3rd period: Suzuki (4). Pezzetta (1), Dvorak (1)
OT: --
SO: --

Lightning Scorers
1st period: Kucherov (10), Paul (6), Barre-Boulet (4)-PPG, Eyssimont (4)
2nd period: --
3rd period: Paul (7)-PPG
OT: --
SO: --

Goaltenders
MTL: Allen (L) 3-2-1, Montembeault
TBL: Tomkins (W) 1-2-0

Canadiens Players of the Game

Kaiden Guhle - Guhle was the Canadiens best defenseman earning an assist in just under 20 minutes of ice time. With his team down by four goals and time winding down in the first period, Guhle went after two Lighting players showing his temper and sending a message to the visitors and his teammates.

Joel Armia and Jake Evans - The two players contributed effective fourth line play and helped shut down the vaunted Tampa. The Lightning scored two power-play goals but not when Armia and Evans were on the penalty kill.

Video Highlights

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uw7A07iD-qA[/embed]

Post-game Quotes

Jordan Harris

“Even though they had played the day before, we know the kind of attack they have If we could have slowed them down when they left to start the match well but they got off to a good start."

Marty St. Louis on Mike Matheson

"He would be the first to say it, he’s not playing to his standards right now. Every player who plays as much as him will experience something similar in a season. We know what he can bring to the team, I know that he is trying to bring us that too, to offer us better performance, and we will continue to help him, because we need the player that he is capable of being."

Game Preview

Canadiens Looking to Get Back on Track at Home | PREVIEW: TBL @ MTL

Up Next

The Canadiens will practice at 11 a.m. at the CN Sports Complex in Brossard on Wednesday morning. Then they will head to Detroit to face the Red Wings on Thursday at Little Caesars Arena. Puck drop is 7 pm ET.

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