The Florida Panthers will try and stay in touch in the race for an Eastern Conference playoff spot when they play the Montreal Canadiens on Monday night at Bell Centre in Montreal.
who hold the second wild-card position entering play Sunday night.,The Panthers (35-27-7) were five points behind the New Jersey Devils
Florida's playoff drive stalled Saturday with a 4-2 loss to the Edmonton Oilers.
Forward Vincent Trochek said the Panthers can't afford to take any teams lightly at this time of the season. The Oilers are 13th in the Western Conference and the Canadiens (26-34-12) are 13th in the Eastern Conference.
we would. It's just a matter of coming to every game like it's a playoff game. Can't let off the pedal at all.","When we play the way we can, we win a lot of games," Trocheck told the league's website. "I don't think we're pleased with (Saturday), the way we played. I think we should beat that team. If we play our game
The Panthers will be looking to get their power play going against the Canadiens.
Florida was 0 of 6 on the power play Saturday. Give the Oilers credit, though, because they own the best penalty killing in the league on the road.
and they tie it up. It's a different game after that.","We had many chances to go up 3-1 and we didn't, that's what happens. Could be goofy bounces or whatever," Panthers coach Bob Boughner said to NHL.com. "When you let teams stick around like that
Defenseman Alex Petrovic missed his second game with a lower-body injury against the Oilers. He is day to day.
"A lot of important hockey ahead of us here,
adidas Carey Price jersey," Panthers goaltender Roberto Luongo told NHL.com. "Disappointed with (Saturday),
adidas Andrew Shaw jersey, but we've got some big games coming up on the road this week. So we've got to forget about it and just get back to what we do best."
a franchise record.,The Canadiens,
adidas Max Pacioretty jersey, meanwhile, are coming off a 4-0 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday,
authentic Mike Fisher jersey, their sixth loss in their past seven games (1-4-2). It was the 11th time the Canadiens have been shut out this season
getting 49 on goal. Canadiens rookie goaltender Charlie Lindgren made 45 saves.,The Maple Leafs had 89 shot attempts against the Canadiens
Montreal defenseman Jeff Petry summed up what went wrong for the Canadiens in the game," he said, but he might as well have been speaking about the last few months: "We played a decent road first period, and then I don't know if we got lazy or what it was, but it was an unacceptable second period. We were slow to get to spots, bad gaps, slow to defend, the list goes on, according to NHL.com.
Canadiens coach Claude Julien is looking for his team to bounce back from an awful second period Saturday.
"The second period was unacceptable in my book. The lack of focus, the lack of effort and everything else, not 20 or 40. We played 20 and we just kind of disappointed everybody in the second period.,
authentic Andrew Shaw jersey," he told the team's website. "At one point, you've got to understand that a game is 60 minutes long
but we took a real step backwards with that second period. We can't accept that kind of effort.",
adidas Mike Fisher jersey,"It's disappointing because I thought we've been making some good strides
The Canadiens' injury list remains a long one: goaltender Carey Price (concussion, injured reserve); defensemen Shea Weber (foot,
authentic Carey Price jersey, day to day); Rinat Valiev (lower body,
authentic Max Pacioretty jersey, out for the season), Victor Mete (finger,
adidas P.K Subban jersey, day to day); David Schlemko (lower body, day to day); and Andrew Shaw (head,
authentic P.K Subban jersey, injured reserve); Max Pacioretty (knee, day to day) and forwards Ales Hemsky (upper body, day to day); Phillip Danault (headaches, day to day).
