Alain Vigneault wasn’t pleased with Kirk Muller following the Montreal Canadiens loss, but he has nothing to apologize for as the team gears for Game 3.
Game 2 went as well as it could for the Montreal Canadiens. They scored five goals, chasing Carter Hart after the fourth, and didn’t allow any seeing Carey Price get the 30-save shutout against the Philadelphia Flyers to tie the series at one-all.
Looking at the underlying numbers, the Habs kept the Flyers out of the game. Scott Laughton was the only player on the team to have an above 50% CF% at 5v5 with 57.14% while their top players in Claude Giroux, Sean Couturier and Jakub Vorachek were relatively filled in. To make matters worse, Philadelphia also had Travis Konecny leave the game after taking a shot to the foot.
The frustration level was at an all-time high for the boys in orange, and the Canadiens relished every minute of it. And then there was the post-game.
It was a warming moment to see interim head coach Kirk Muller dedicate the win to Claude Julien. Julien is back in Montreal recovering from having a stent inserted into his coronary artery, and the hockey world came together to wish him good fortune, and the Habs likely had an extra hop in their step with him in mind.
"To Claude, I'm sure you're listening, this win's for you." - Kirk Muller
— Arpon Basu (@ArponBasu) August 14, 2020
Unfortunately, there was another thing to come out of the post-game scrums, and it started on Philadelphia’s end.