Credit: Bob Frid-USA TODAY Sports
Start time: **10:00 PM EDT / 7:00 PM PDT**
In the Canadiens region: TSN2 (English), RDS (French)
In the Canucks region: Sportsnet Pacific
The Montreal Canadiens have played two good games to start this road trip, holding Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl to just one point apiece through regulation on Thursday night and then getting a strong performance from Jakub Dobes on Saturday with just one goal against. Yet the Canadiens only have one point to show for a 3-2 overtime loss to the Edmonton Oilers that was followed up by a perfect night from goaltender Dustin Wolf in Calgary.
There isn’t any reason for the players to panic about the results. While points are important to their late-season push for the playoffs, they can still claim five of the available eight on this road trip, and playing the same way as they did in the opening two games should give them that chance. They’ve put up similar expected-goal numbers to what they generated during the five-game winning streak that preceded this journey west, and their underlying defensive numbers even better in Alberta than during that time. The results will start to go in their favour once again without any significant changes.
While the Habs fight for their own wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference, they’ve found themselves amid the fray of the same battle in west. The 1-0 win for the Flames put Calgary one point up on the Vancouver Canucks for the final playoff spot, and now Vancouver will be trying to take that position back. Canadiens management wanted its team to be playing meaningful games as the season came to an end, and they don’t get much more meaningful than this for both teams involved.
Canadiens Statistics Canucks 30-27-6 Record 29-23-11 48.2% (26th) Scoring-chances-for % 49.4% (19th) 2.92 (16th) Goals per game 2.71 (27th) 3.27 (25th) Goals against per game 3.02 (19th) 21.5% (17th) PP% 22.3% (16th) 82.2% (5th) PK% 82.2% (5th) 1-0-0 Head-to-Head Record 0-0-1 The vibes are still good in Montreal as a young up-and-coming team tries to make the playoffs. The mood has been sour in Vancouver, however, with a rift between J.T. Miller and Elias Pettersson ending with the trade of the former while the latter still tries to find his form. Brock Boeser was another player who seemed to want a change of scenery, but no deal was made at the deadline, and he was just recently stripped of his A and replaced in the team’s leadership corps. Add in constant injury concerns for starting goaltender Thatcher Demko, still out week-to-week, and various ailments for Quinn Hughes limiting him to just three games since January 31, and there is understandably some concern that the Canucks won’t make it back to the post-season after advancing to the second round in 2024.
Five regulation losses since the 4 Nations aren’t allaying those fears for the fanbase. The Canucks have only scored 17 goals in the eight games played. Before Miller was traded to the Rangers, Vancouver had the 20th-ranked offence at 2.84 goals per game. After just 13 games since then, they’ve fallen to 27th by scoring 2.23 per contest. They haven’t scored more than three goals a single time in that span after managing to do so 18 times in the opening 50 games.
Montreal just needs its regular contributors to get on the scoresheet and the Canucks should have a hard time keeping up. Dustin Wolf brought the six-game point streaks for Lane Hutson and Cole Caufield to an end, but it wasn’t for a lack of trying by the smallest members of Montreal’s lineup. Hutson played over half of the third period trying to break down the Flames’ defences, and Caufield was the most engaged skater all game long with his defensive and offensive play. You can probably count on those two starting new streaks this evening, and a few teammates joining in on the fun would help the Habs gets past a struggling club.
