Game 16 – Canadiens vs Mammoth: Forgetting About Tuesday’s Humiliation

The Montreal Canadiens will host the Utah Mammoth on Thursday night at the Bell Centre and they’ll be hoping to make amends for their horrendous performance on Tuesday night against the Winnipeg Jets. After leading 4-0 with 2:40 to go in regulation, the Habs ended up losing the game 5-4 in overtime, but the visitors had dominated the whole game and had it not been for Jacob Fowler, Montreal would never have had that four-goal lead to begin with.

Thursday’s tilt will be the first between the two sides this season and the Canadiens will be hoping the result is the same as last season when they beat Utah twice 6-2 in early November 2025 and 4-3 later in the same month. Unlike the Canadiens though, the Mammoth have made some changes this past offseason gone are J.J. Peterka, Sean Durzi, Ian Cole, Alexander Kerfoot and Vitek Vanecek, but they’ve been replaced by Anders Lee, Vincent Trocheck, Andrew Peeke and Sebastian Cossa.

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The Salt-Lake City-based outfit is fresh off a 3-2 win against the Toronto Maple Leafs and has six wins in its last 10 games. They are currently second in the Central Division with 20 points in 16 games, which is good for ninth overall in the league. Meanwhile, the Canadiens have 21 points in just 15 games, which is good enough for sixth overall in the NHL. Since the Coyotes moved to Utah, the Habs have won three of the four duels, including the last two.

Interestingly, two of the three Habs wins belong to Samuel Montemeyrol, who is still day-to-day with a lower-body injury. The other belongs to Jakub Dobes, who surrendered three goals on 34 shots when he faced them, for a .912 save percentage. As for Jacob Fowler, he has never faced them. Will Martin St-Louis go with Fowler in net, given that he was the only player who played well on Tuesday night, or will he go back to Dobes since Fowler did, after all, lose the game? At morning skate, St-Louis confirmed that Dobes would get the start.

For the Mammoth, Cossa was in net for the win against the Leafs, but Karel Vejmelka has seen the lion’s share of the work so far this season. The former has never taken on the Habs while the latter is 3-3-1 against the Canadiens with a 3.57 goals-against average and a .854 SV. Numbers that are far from impressive really.

Up front, Cole Caufield leads the Habs with six points in four games against the visitors, followed by Zach Bolduc, who has 5 points in six games, and Nick Suzuki, Lane Hutson, and Noah Dobson, who all have four points in four games against the visitors. As for Alex Newhook, he has four points but in three games. If Nick Suzuki and/or Kirby Dach are ready to return, it will be interesting to see who makes way in the lineup. Florian Xhekaj’s ill-timed fight may come back to haunt him, and Owen Beck could also be a healthy scratch, not because he deserves it, but rather because he’s the one with the least experience, and sadly, there is kind of an established pecking order. Chris Kreider and Lane Hutson are both riding a three-game point streak; they both have four points in that span. Both Suzuki and Kirby Dach will be in the lineup. 

On the other side, Clayton Keller leads the Mammoth in points against the Canadiens with 18 in 15 games, followed by Trochek, who has 17 points in 34 games, and Nick Schmaltz with 15 points in as many games. Keller is also on a three-game point streak, with six assists in that span, but former Habs defenseman Mikhail Sergachev is on an eight-game point streak with three goals and seven assists in that span. Montreal would do well to keep a close eye on him. 

The game starts at 7:00 PM, and you can watch it on RDS in French and TSN 2 in English. Peter MacDougall and TJ Luxmore will referee, while Trent Knorr and Anthony Lapointe will be the linesmen. 

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