The Montreal Canadiens will have a chance to bounce back against the Edmonton Oilers after a subpar performance against the New York Rangers on Saturday night.
Fresh off a 5-4 overtime loss, the Montreal Canadiens will try to right the ship on Sunday night when they take on the Edmonton Oilers at the Bell Centre. Since they were playing the New York Rangers last night, there won’t be a morning skate or media availability, which is just as well since Martin St-Louis looked about to burst following Saturday night’s loss. The bench boss explained his team’s defeat by saying they made “stupid mistakes” and wasn’t willing to elaborate.
The pilot also declined to confirm who would be in the net for the duel. Jacob Fowler has played the last two games, and while he was excellent against the Penguins on Thursday night, he couldn’t save the Habs on Saturday night. Samuel Montembeault sat on the bench for those two games while Jakub Dobes was in the press gallery.
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The two teams have met once this season, with the Oilers earning a 6-5 win in a frustrating game for the Sainte Flanelle. After 40 minutes, St-Louis’ men were leading 4-3, and they took a 5-3 lead early in the third before giving up three goals in the last nine minutes. Montembeault was in the net at the time and made 17 saves on 23 shots for a .739 SV%.
In eight games against Edmonton, the Becancour native has a 2-3-3 record with a 3.07 goals-against average and a .899 save percentage. As for Dobes and Fowler, they have never faced the Oilers and their All-Star players, Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, who both have five-game point streaks.
Meanwhile, newly acquired netminder Tristan Jarry was in the net for the Oilers on Saturday night when they beat the Toronto Maple Leafs 6-3, so they may choose to rest him even if he has a great record against the Habs. He’s 8-2-1 with a 2.65 GAA and a .906 SV. He was in the net for the Pittsburgh Penguins earlier this week when they fell 4-2 to the Habs. As for Calvin Pickard, their other option, he’s 3-5-0 against Montreal and has a 2.98 GAA and a .897 SV%.
Edmonton is 6-2-2 in its last 10 games while the Canadiens are 5-4-1, but both teams have 36 points in the standings, mainly because of goaltending issues. The Habs have the second-highest goal-against average at 3.55, while the Oilers are at 3.38.
Up front, the Sainte-Flanelle will have to keep an eye on McDavid, who has 37 points in just 28 duels with the Habs, while Draisaitl has 36 points in 29 tilts. Zach Hyman and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins round up the top three with 24 points each, the former in 27 games and the latter in 31 matches.
Meanwhile, the Canadiens have only three players who have reached double digits against the Oilers: Nick Suzuki (16 points in 20 games), Brendan Gallagher (15 points in 24 games), and Jake Evans (10 points in 13 games). Cole Caufield is just outside of the top three with nine points (including six goals) in as many games.
It will be interesting to see what St-Louis’ lineup looks like for the game after he was displeased by several plays on Saturday. Although he scored a goal, it wouldn’t be surprising to see Arber Xhekaj scratched as he made a few defensive mistakes.
The game is set for 7:00 PM, and you can catch it on RDS, TSN2, SNW and NHLN. This is the first of four games for the Canadiens this week, as they’ll host Philadelphia, Chicago, and Pittsburgh before going back on the road, as is the tradition during the Christmas holidays.
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