MTL@VAN: West coast offense

VANCOUVER -- The Habs' fourth line was looking good on Tuesday. Just don't call them the fourth line.

With Shea Weber out of the lineup to start a tough western Canadian road trip in B.C., it was the Canadiens' offense that sprung to life at Rogers Arena, giving the depleted defense seven goals to work with -- two notably coming from Nicolas Deslauriers, and a third from Daniel Carr.
"First of all, maybe we should stop calling them the fourth line, because they don't play like fourth liners," stressed Claude Julien postgame, as the Habs earned a fourth-consecutive win against the Canucks since 2015. "They play the right way, they manage the puck, and battle against the boards. For me, they're a lot better than a fourth line, and we're very happy with their work."

Indeed, there's a lot to be happy with these days.
On Tuesday, Carr scored the Habs' opening goal and added an assist in the second period to bring his season point total to nine in eight games since being called up from Laval.
Linemate Byron Froese meanwhile has already matched his career-best five points from 2015-16 in 39 fewer games, and Deslauriers of course enjoyed his first career multi-goal game on Tuesday.
"I just think they play the right way. It's pretty simple when you look at what they're doing. They're doing exactly what we're asking of them, and their work ethic is what makes the difference," continued the Canadiens head coach. "They compete so hard every time they're on the ice. They're doing the right things -- winning board battles, winning races -- and they're in the right places to score too. They're a pretty reliable line -- defensively they do a pretty good job -- so it's to their credit. They deserve the accolades because they're doing what they're being told, and it's paying dividends for them and for us."

Not to mention rubbing off on the rest of the offense.
"They know when they're able to chip in, it obviously gives us a huge advantage in the game. Tonight, not only did they chip in, but they were able to come up with two big goals for us down low. That gets the team going and gives us an opportunity to win the game," underlined Max Pacioretty, who registered a pair of assists on goals from Paul Byron and Phillip Danault. "I thought we created a lot of offense, but it started with the momentum we gained from that line."
Likewise, Jonathan Drouin -- newly reunited with the Habs captain on the Canadiens top line -- also picked up a first point since Nov. 29 with an assist on Paul Byron's third-period marker, on a night the offense was clicking.
"He's a good player. He's had some setbacks, but tonight he seemed to have his skating legs. He was doing the right things, and when he's at the top of the game he's so creative and dangerous," acknowledged Julien of Drouin, who has 18 points in 29 games this season. "If we're going to keep moving forward here, we need some of our top players to be good, and tonight they were. Pacioretty was good with his helpers and four scoring chances. We need that from our top players, and we got it tonight."

In fact, they got it from across the lineup, as the Habs best defense in Vancouver was a potent offense.
"We're happy with the offensive part -- not so much with the defensive part tonight," concluded Julien, following a night which saw five goals against. "At least we scored some goals which is something that we'll build off, because we're not where we want to be yet."