The Montreal Canadiens are taking advantage of a light week of home hockey action to address two concerns that have cropped up in spite of their glittering 5-1-0 record to start the season: shots allowed and penalties taken.
The Canadiens have been giving up 32.6 shots per game, a generosity that has put goalies Carey Price and Dustin Tokarski to the test.
Canadiens' defenceman Mike Weaver said Monday that the statistic isn’t only a bad reflection on the defence but the team as a whole.
Fellow blueliner Tom Gilbert noted that the Has have been taking too many penalties. He said that the bad habit has forced the team to start slowly and often come back from behind.
Sophomore winger Michael Bournival has been called back up to the big team after a conditioning stint in Hamilton but there was no assurance that he would be in the lineup when the Canadiens host the Detroit Red Wings Tuesday.
"We will determine what type of lineup we want to put out there for this week's games," Therrien told a scrum of reporters Monday.
Red Wings are 3-1-1 in five games so far this season and are led by Henrik Zetterberg, Johan Franzen and Gustav Nyquist, all of whom have started out on a point-per-game pace, while veteran goaltender Jimmy Howard has a sparkling .934 save percentage.
The Canadiens then play against the Rangers Saturday before heading to Western Canada for a road swing.
-With a file from The Canadian Press
