The Montreal Canadiens will host the Carolina Hurricanes at the Bell Centre on Monday night to play pivotal Game 3 or their best-of-seven series.
The Montreal Canadiens came back from North Carolina with a win, which means that they’ve taken home-ice advantage away from the Carolina Hurricanes, but will it help them? So far in these playoffs, the Habs have played six home games, and they’ve only managed to win twice. The Bell Centre has been by far the noisiest building this spring, but it hasn’t had the desired effect. Buffalo Sabres coach Lindy Ruff even joked that he would try to see if it would be possible to play Game 7 in Montreal.
The Bell Centre should be intimidating for the visitors, but it’s almost as if it has become intimidating for the Canadiens as well. The Habs are still a young team, and dealing with that kind of euphoria when the stakes are that high is not always easy. Speaking to the media yesterday, coach Martin St-Louis touched on the matter:
I think the biggest thing for me, not being on the ice but being on the bench with them: the fans have poured so much love and so much support. I feel like we want to do it for them so bad, that sometimes we’re just trying too hard, we look out of sorts a little bit. We’ve still had some good games at home, that haven’t resulted in wins…Does that add a “oh we really need to win this one, or we really need to win this one for them” I just think we need to take a deep breath, and just understand that they are behind us and they showed us a lot of love, we just got to try to play the game that’s in front of us, and not have it predetermined because you want it so bad.
Historically, in the NHL, when a series is tied 1-1, the team that started it at home has a 206-170 (.548) record, giving Carolina a slight edge. Rod Brind’Amour’s men have been very good on the road so far; they’ve won the four games they’ve played away from the Lenovo Center, but that was with a Frederik Andersen who was at the top of his game, something we’ve yet to see in this series so far. The Canes have a 6-6 record when the series was tied 1-1, but their numbers in the third game of a series are far from impressive. They are 14-24 (.368) overall and 8-13 (.381) when the game is played on the road.
Meanwhile, the Canadiens are 14-9 (.609) when a series has been tied 1-1, and they’ve started it on the road. As for the third game of a series, they’re 76-51 (.598) overall, but 26-21 (.553) when the game is played in Montreal. However, in both of their series this year, the Habs have recorded a win in Game 3. A 3-2 overtime win against the Tampa Bay Lightning when Lane Hutson scored after just 2:09 in the extra frame, and a 6-2 triumph over the Buffalo Sabres in which Alex Newhook led the charge with two goals. Speaking about Hutson, he is reportedly fine after taking a big hit on Saturday night, looking a bit uncomfortable.
Playing at home with the last change, St-Louis should be able to get Nick Suzuki’s line away from Jordan Staal’s. The Canes’ captain has been a significant thorn in the top line’s side in Game 2. After combining for eight points in Game 1, Suzuki, Cole Caufield, and Juraj Slafkovsky were kept off the scoresheet on Saturday night, and the Canadiens will need more from them if they are to take the lead in this series. In the last game, Montreal could only muster 12 shots on goal on a shaky Frederik Andersen, and that’s something they’ll need to improve. Slafkovsky leads the team in shots in these playoffs with 45, Caufield is second with 36, and Suzuki is tied with Ivan Demidov at 33. Those four players must find a way to put the puck on net, regardless of how much pressure the Carolina defense system is putting on them.
Montreal will also need to get more involved physically. They were outhit 46-16 on Saturday night, which says a lot about how dominant the Hurricanes were and how the Habs were unable to escape their relentless forecheck and physical pressure. St-Louis’ men have yet to lose two games in a row this spring; they are 6-0 after suffering a defeat. It remains to be seen if they’ll be able to keep that up against Carolina, but it does explain why they shouldn’t have any confidence issues going in. After the morning skate, Eric Engels reported that Joe Veleno would be in tonight.
The Tricolore is set to hold a morning skate at 10:30 this morning, and while that has rarely given us any clues about the lineup, the players who stay on the ice to work overtime are generally scratched in the evening. Game 3 will kick off at 8:00 PM, and you can catch it on CBC, TVAS, SN, TNT, truTV, and HBO MAX. Francis Charron and Wes McCauley are officiating tonight, while Ryan Gibbons and Trent Knorr will be the linemen.
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