Canadiens: An Opportunity To Bounce Back

If the Montreal Canadiens took on the hottest team in the NHL on Tuesday night, they’ll take on the one with the worst record in the last ten games on Thursday night when they take on the Philadelphia Flyers. John Tortorella’s men appear to be just going through the motions at this stage. They are in 28th place in the league, and they’ve got a 1-8-1 record in their last 10.

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Meanwhile, Montreal’s fantastic record since the 4 Nations Face-Off has taken a real hit of late, and they are down to 4-2-4. The Canadiens are winless in their last three games, although the points they salvaged in two of the three losses in extra time have kept them afloat.

There’s no word yet on who will be in Montreal's net, but after Wednesday afternoon’s practice, Martin St. Louis confirmed both of his goalies would see some action during the back-to-back against the Flyers and the Carolina Hurricanes.

Samuel Montembeault has played against the Flyers three times and has a 2-0-0 record. He has a 3.34 goals-against average and a .894 save percentage. Jakub Dobes has never faced them.

The two sides have only faced each other once so far this season, when the Canadiens took a 4-3 win over Philadelphia. Cayden Primeau and Aleksei Kolosov were in net. Neither is with their respective teams right now, they are both plying the AHL.

Samuel Ersson was in the net for the Flyers’ massive loss against the Toronto Maple Leafs, surrendering seven goals on 30 shots and finishing his night with a 767 SP. He’s 1-2-0 against the Canadiens, with a 3.47 GAA and a .824 SP. As for Ivan Fedotov, he played part of a game against the Canadiens and wasn’t involved in the decision, but he had an 8.79 GAA and a .692 SP, giving up four goals on 13 shots.

When he spoke to the press on Wednesday afternoon, St-Louis said he didn’t know if Kaiden Guhle would play but he didn’t think so. Brendan Gallagher leads the Canadiens in points with 24 points in 30 games, followed by Mike Matheson, who has 12 points in 27 games, and Nick Suzuki, who has 12 points in just 13 games. As for Cole Caufield, who’s been held pointless in three of the last four games, he’s a point-per-game player against Philly with eight points in eight games.

As for the Fyers, Sean Couturier remains their top scorer against the Canadiens with 20 points in 32 games, Travis Konecky is second with 13 points in 18 games and Owen Tippett rounds up the top-three with 10 points in as many games, matching Caufield’s point-per-game status.

As for Lane Hutson’s rival in the Calder Trophy race Matvei Michkov, he was held pointless in his only game against Montreal earlier this season. Hutson is still leading the race with 54 points while Macklin Celebrini is second with 52 points and Michkov is third with 51 points.

The Canadiens remain in the second wild card spot in the East after the Vancouver Canucks beat the New York Islanders in regulation on Wednesday night. Montreal has a single point lead over the Islanders and the New York Rangers, a two-point lead over the Columbus Blue Jackets and three points over the Detroit Red Wings. The Habs have game in hands on all of their rivals, aside from the Blue Jackets who have played the same number of games. 

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