Credit To Canadiens - Montreal hobbled into the District with a five-game losing streak on the road, a skid during which it was outscored by a combined 16-4 in the five contests. In their most recent outing, the Habs delivered a lackluster effort in a 4-1 loss to the Bruins in Boston. The Habs responded with a very strong, top-to-bottom, 60-minute performance in Friday's win over the Caps.
"As I said before the game to our guys," says Trotz, "They're a proud organization and I listened to them talk about their last game in Boston and they were not happy. They felt that they could play with a lot more purpose and a lot more energy and all that, and they did.
"They came out and line after line just competed hard. They protected their goaltender, they won their battles and honestly I thought they could have had seven goals tonight."
Even with the win, the Habs are still hurting in the standings. The two-point gain leaves them nine points back of the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.
"I think our team played extremely well tonight," says Julien. "So for me, that's five out of six games where we've played pretty good hockey, and that's what we have to look at, that's what we've got to build on.
"We've got a real big mountain to climb to get back in the playoffs, and we realize that. We realize it's going to take a lot of wins, and we've got to give ourselves a chance because we believe in ourselves. We couldn't let that Boston game affect us tonight, but we had to learn from it. And I think the guys showed they were ready to bounce back, and I'm proud of them tonight for the effort."
Down On The Farm - The ECHL South Carolina Stingrays eked out a 3-2 road victory on Friday night over the Norfolk Admirals.
Hampus Gustafsson and Tim McGauley scored in the second to stake the Stingrays to a 2-0 lead. After the Admirals tied it up with a pair in the third, Kris Bindulis netted his third of the season to win it for South Carolina in the extra session. Parker Milner stopped 35 of 37 shots in goal to earn the victory, raising his record to 12-3-2-0 on the season.
The 24-9-3-1 Stingrays are staying over in Norfolk to face the Admirals once again on Saturday night at The Scope.
By The Numbers -Carlson led the Caps with 29:11 in ice time, eight shots and 11 shot attempts … Brett Connolly led the Caps with five hits … Tom Wilson and T.J. Oshie each blocked three shots to pace Washington … Eller won 13 of 16 face-offs (81%) and Jay Beagle won seven of 11 (64%).