The Montreal Canadiens will be in Columbus to take on the Blue Jackets for the third and final time this season tonight.
The Montreal Canadiens are hoping to enter the Christmas break on a four-game winning streak by sweeping their season series with the Columbus Blue Jackets tonight. The Habs come to town with a lot of momentum, having won their last three games, one against the Buffalo Sabres and two against the Detroit Red wings while outscoring them 15-5 over the three games.
So far this season, the Canadiens got the better of the Jackets in Montreal in a 5-1 win and in Columbus at the end of November in a tight 4-3 overtime win. Cayden Primeau was in net for the end of November tilt, one of his only two wins this season. As you all know by now, Samuel Montembeault has started the last nine games for the Tricolore, including the back-to-back on Friday and Saturday. Will Martin St-Louis dare to give Primeau the net?
As things stand, the Blue Jackets have got 32 points, just one more than the Canadiens and a win in regulation would mean overtaking them in the standings. The coach said recently that the delicate balance between developing youngsters and trying to win games is starting to shift. If it is indeed shifting, and St-Louis wants to win, it's hard to see him giving the nod to Primeau.
Montembeault has taken on Columbus eight times so far and has a 5-3-0 record to show for it, with a 2.93 goals-against average and a. 905 save percentage. As for Primeau, he's taken them on the Jackets three times and has a 2-1-0 record, a 1.77 GAA and a .946.
While the backup's stats are great against the Ohio outfit, the problem lies with his performance overall this season. In 11 games, he's 2-3-1 with a 4.70 GAA and a .836 SP. He's dead last in both categories amongst goaltenders who have played at least 11 games.
As for Columbus, Elvis Merzlikins has a 3-3-3 record against the Canadiens with a 3.44 GAA and a .879 SP while backup Danil Tarasov has only faced Montreal twice and was only involved in one decision which he lost. His GAA stands at 2.65 and his SP at 2.65. The number two was also the one on duty when Montreal hammered Columbus 5-1 earlier this season.
Up front, Montreal will be hoping for sniper Patrik Laine to keep up his fantastic form and keep lightning up the power play, but tonight will be Laine's first game against the Blue Jackets since they traded him, but before then, in eight career games against them, he had only recorded one points.
Captain Nick Suzuki leads the charge against Columbus with 17 points in just 14 games, his usual partner in crime, Cole Caufield has 10 points in nine games and Juraj Slafkovsky, who's just coming off two very inspired games has six points in seven games. As for Brendan Gallagher, he's put up 16 points in 30 games, including eight goals. The veteran is now only six goals away from Tomas Plekanec for 17th best goal scorer in franchise history and after being silenced for 13 games, he scored last night and will be hungry for more.
As for Columbus, James Van Riemsdyk is their most productive player against Montreal with 34 points in 48 games while Former Hab Sean Monahan is second with 19 points in 27 games. In third place defenseman Zach Werenski has 13 points in 20 points.
The Jackets are not doing great of late with a 2-5-3 records in their last 10 games, they've lost six of their last seven games including their last 5-4 in overtime against the Philadelphia Flyers. Montreal has won seven of the last 10 duels against Columbus, the Canadiens are on a seven-game winning streak against the Blue Jackets.
The game is set for 7:00 PM and will be the Canadiens' last until they come back of the Christmas game with a matinee on Dec. 28 against the Florida Panthers, before heading to Tampa Bay for part two of their back-to-back.
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