The Montreal Canadiens will take on the Tampa Bay Lightning at the Bell Centre on Thursday night in a game with huge implications in the standings.
After a less-than-ideal performance to beat a weakened Florida Panthers side, the Montreal Canadiens will be taking on the mighty Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday night at the Bell Centre. Right now, the two teams have 102 points and trail the Buffalo Sabres, who sit atop the Atlantic Division by two points. Buffalo took the lead on Wednesday night with a win over the New York Rangers, but Montreal and Tampa now have a game in hand. For the Canadiens to win the division, they need more points than their two rivals, since both Tampa and Buffalo have more regulation wins and would take the tiebreaker.
The Bolts come to town with a 5-3-2 record in their last 10 games and have lost their last two games, while the Canadiens are 9-1-0 in their last 10 games and will be trying to start a new winning streak after coming out on top in their last game.
Thursday’s game will be the last of four duels between the two sides, with Tampa leading the season series 2-1. Jon Cooper’s men have presented a real challenge for the Canadiens over the last few years. Montreal has only won three of its last 10 duels dating back to November 2023.
There’s no word yet on who will be between the pipes for either team, and we won’t have confirmation until the warmup since Martin St-Louis is now keeping his cards close to his chest. Jakub Dobes has a 1-1-0 record against the visitors with a 4.16 goals-against average and a .881 save percentage. As for Jacob Fowler, he has a 0-0-1 record with a 3.77 GAA and a .810 SV. Chances are St-Louis will stick with Dobes, who has won his last six games and the last tilt with Tampa, and wait for the weekend’s back-to-back to give another game to Fowler, who was in net for the 3-0 loss to the New Jersey Devils on Sunday night.
Meanwhile, Cooper will likely give the net to number one Andrei Vasilevskiy, considering how important the duel is for the standings. The ace netminder has a 16-4-2 record against the Canadiens, with a 2.08 GAA and a .930 SV. As for backup, Jonas Johansson, he has a 4-2-0 record with a 3.79 GAA and a .875 SV.
Up front, Brendan Gallagher remains the most productive Hab against the Bolts with 19 points in 41 games, but it remains to be seen if he will be back in the lineup after being a healthy scratch for the last game. Nick Suzuki and Phillip Danault both have 14 points, the former in 21 games and the latter in 29 games. The captain only needs four more points to reach the 100-point milestone and just one more to become the highest-scoring captain in Canadiens history in a single season.
Cole Caufield, who’s eager to put his 50th goal chase behind him, has nine points in 15 games against the Bolts, including four goals, but he has only scored one against Vasilevskiy. His shooting percentage against him stands at only 5.6%. As for Juraj Slafkovsky, he has 10 points in 12 games against the Bolts, including five goals, two of which came against Tampa’s number one, against whom he has a 25% shooting percentage. With 29 goals to his name, the power forward hopes to notch his 30th before the end of the season, and given that he has five points in three games against the Bolts this season, tonight may be the night for him.
We’ll also have to wait until the warmup to see if Joe Veleno (who was out with the flu), Gallagher, and Kaiden Guhle (who had a maintenance day on Tuesday and a treatment day yesterday) will be back in the lineup.
As for the Lightning, Nikita Kucherov has always been very successful against Montreal with 48 points in 41 games, followed by Brayden Point, who has 27 points in 32 games, and by Jake Guentzel with 24 points in just 21 games. Kucherov, who’s trailing Connor McDavid by six points in the scoring race, will be hoping to close out that gap, and with four points in three duels with the Habs this season, he’ll be the man to watch. It's worth noting that, as of now, Victor Hedman, Brendan Hagel, and Anthony Cirelli, all important parts of the Bolts, are all considered day-to-day.
The game is set for 7:00 PM, and you can catch it on RDS, TSN2, and The Spot. Justin Kea and Trevor Hanson will be officiating, while Mark Shewchyk and Andrew Smith will be the linemen. Canadiens’ fans will also want to keep an eye on the Frozen Four tournament tonight. At 8:30 PM, Michael Hage and the Michigan Wolverines will take on the Denver Pioneers for the right to play in the final on Saturday. Should Michigan lose, it would be decision time for Hage.
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