Game 5: Canadiens vs Red Wings – Battle Of The Bottom Of The Atlantic

The Montreal Canadiens aren't starting the season as well as they'd hoped. After four games, they are 1-2-1 with only three points, leaving them in seventh place in the Atlantic Division. On Saturday night, they’ll host the eighth-place Detroit Red Wings and their disgruntled former captain, Dylan Larkin.

This will be the first game since the Habs sent Jayden Struble to the Nashville Predators, which means that Adam Engstrom should still be in the lineup unless, of course, Kaiden Guhle is now ready to return.

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Saturday night’s tilt will be the 616th meeting between the two sides. Montreal has a 298-212-96-9 record, but Detroit has won six of the last 10, including the last two.

The visitors have already confirmed they will use backup Daniil Tarasov in net tonight. This will be his second game of the season. He’s played four games against the Canadiens and has a 0-1-2 record, a 2.73 goals-against average, and a .900 save percentage. As for John Gibson, he has a 9-3-1 record against the Canadiens, a 2.29 GAA, and a .926 SV.

Meanwhile, according to what we saw at the morning skate, Jakub Dobes will skip his turn for a second game in a row. The masked man has faced Detroit twice and holds a 1-1-0 record with a 1.52 GAA and a .948 SV against the Wings. As for Jacob Fowler, he has lost his only game against the Wings and has a 3.18 GAA and a .870 SV against them, but he played well against the Nashville Predators despite the loss. It was clearly good enough to earn him another start. The Canadiens will be without Samuel Montembeault for 10 to 14 days as the Bécancour native deals with a lower-body injury sustained in practice.

Up front, the Wings have two players who have always been successful against the Canadiens: Larkin and DeBrincat, both with 25 points against the Habs—the former in 36 games and the latter in 22. Andrew Copp is in third place with 20 points in 31 games. DeBrincat has been particularly productive, with five points in three games, while Viktor Arvidsson has four in three.

For the Habs, Chris Kreider is the most productive forward against the Wings with 26 points in 34 games, followed by Nick Suzuki with 19 points in 22 games and Phillip Danault with 18 points in 28 games. The Habs captain has points in the last three games, scoring three goals and adding four assists in that span. The Habs will still be without Ivan Demidov, and as of this writing, there's nothing new to report on Oliver Kapanen's health or potential return. 

The Canadiens will, however, get some blueline reinforcements as Kaiden Guhle plays his first game of the season. As a result, the Habs will ice seven defensemen and 11 forwards, leaving Florian Xhekaj out. 

The game is set for 7:00 PM, and you can catch it on TVA Sports in French and Sportsnet East in English. Chris Rooney and Garrett Rank will referee, while Bevan Mills and Ryan Jackson will serve as linesmen. It will be interesting to see how the Bell Centre crowd reacts to Larkin after local radio station BPM Sports suggested the crowd try to seduce the American pivot into waiving his no-movement clause to come to Montreal.

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