For the second time this season, the Montreal Canadiens will host the Ottawa Senators tonight at the Bell Centre. The first duel between the two sides was a highly entertaining affair with the Habs taking a 2-0 lead before letting the Sens claw their way back in the game, to not only tie it, but take a 3-2 lead which held until Ivan Demidov tied it up with less than three minutes to go in regulation. Alex Newhook then scored the game-winning goal to allow Montreal to take the two points.
Many believed the Senators would struggle after losing their captain, Brady Tkachuk, to a broken thumb on October 13. Still, Ottawa stayed afloat until his return on November 28 against the St. Louis Blues. Right now, the visitors are trailing the Canadiens by a single point in the extra-tight Eastern Conference. They haven’t won since his return, though, dropping the game to the Blues 4-3 and suffering a 6-1 defeat against the Dallas Stars. In their last 10 games, the Sens are 5-4-1 while the Habs are 4-5-1.
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Martin St-Louis has already announced that Samuel Montembeault would be in the net, just like in the first duel this season, where he had made 14 saves on just 17 shots. The Becancour native has a 4-4-0 record against Ottawa with a 3.15 goals-against average and a .884 save percentage. Jakub Dobes, who should therefore be in the net on Wednesday night against the Winnipeg Jets, has never taken on the Sens.
While Travis Green has yet to confirm who will be manning Ottawa’s net, it would be surprising if it wasn’t Linus Ullmark. The organization’s top goaltender has a 4-4-1 record against the host with a 3.40 GAA and a .871 SV. As for backup Leevi Merilainen, he has never taken on the Habs.
Up front, the Canadiens will want to keep a close eye on Claude Giroux, the veteran has 39 points in 52 games against Montreal. He has, however, slowed down, and Drake Batherson is the man to watch. In 29 duels, the right winger has 28 points, including two this season. Of course, Tkachuk is also a constant threat with 27 points in 30 games. Tim Stutzle also has a lot of success against the Canadiens with 21 points in 24 games.
For the Habs, Cole Caufield has a seven-game point streak, with two goals and six assists in that span, and is a regular contributor against Ottawa, with 14 points in 15 games. He’s also just two goals away from joining Martin Rucinsky as the 43rd best goal scorer with the Habs, with 134. As for captain Nick Suzuki, he’s on a five-game point streak (three goals and four assists) and has 22 points in 30 duels. Brendan Gallagher is, however, the Habs’ most productive forward against the visitors with 29 points, but he will be playing his 50th game against them on Tuesday night.
The Canadiens have only won four of the last 10 duels between the two sides, but that includes four of the last five tilts. Ottawa’s last win in Montreal goes back to January 2024, a 4-1 win. This game will be the second of four meetings between the two sides this season, the other two being scheduled for January and March in Ottawa.
Montreal will want to play a disciplined game, since the Sens rank 11th in the league with a 21.8% success rate on the man advantage, but they struggle on the penalty kill at 69.9%, which ranks 31st. Meanwhile, the Habs rank ninth on the power play with 23.5% and are 26th when it comes to the penalty kill with a 76.5% success rate. In the November tilt, each team received 16 penalty minutes, but that included the “payback” fight between Jayden Struble and Nick Cousins for his slash on Demidov in the preseason.
Judging by what we saw at practice yesterday, the lineup should be similar to the one used against the Colorado Avalanche since Jayden Struble is still day-to-day with an upper-body injury.
Tonight is the Lane Hutson bobblehead night at the Bell Centre, so make sure you arrive early since only the first 8,000 fans will receive the free collectible. The game is set for 7:00 PM, and you can catch it on RDS, TSN2 and TSN 5.
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