When they lost their last game to the St. Louis Blues, the Montreal Canadiens missed a golden opportunity to leapfrog their divisional rival to take the lead in the Atlantic Division. Still, on Tuesday night, they’ll at least have a chance to overtake the Tampa Bay Lightning in the standings. This game will be the first of four duels between the two sides this season.
Jon Cooper’s men will be playing the second half of a back-to-back tonight after suffering a 2-0 loss against the Toronto Maple Leafs last night. That was their fourth loss in a row and a second shutout in a row. Nikita Kucherov made his return to the lineup after missing a couple of games, but goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy and defensemen Ryan McDonagh and Erick Cernak are all still sidelined.
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There’s no word yet on who will be in net for the Habs tonight, but given the fact that Jakub Dobes has played the last two games and that Kaapo Kahkonen was returned to the Laval Rocket after the previous match, Samuel Montembeault should be back in net. The Becancour native has a 3-3-1 record against the Bolts with a 2.85 goals-against average and a .906 save percentage. As for Dobes, he has faced the Lightning only once and was pulled after allowing three goals on eight shots after 21 minutes of play. That means he has an 8.54 GAA and a .625 SV.
As for Tampa Bay, Jonas Johansson was in the net on Monday night and made 22 saves on 23 shots, and Brandon Halverson is expected to start tonight. The 29-year-old has only played two NHL games since the 2017-18 season, bouncing between the AHL, the ECHL and spending a season in Germany’s second division league. He has never faced the Canadiens. As for Johansson, he’s 2-2-0 with a 4.52 GAA and a .852 SV.
The Canadiens will want to keep an eye on the usual suspects tonight. Victor Hedman has 51 points in 51 career games against the Habs, Kucherov has 44 points in 38 meetings, and Brayden Point wraps up the top three with 24 points in 29 games. Jake Guentzel isn’t far behind with 22 points in just 18 games.
Meanwhile, Montreal only has four players who have reached double digits against Tampa Bay, and that includes the injured Patrik Laine. Brendan Gallagher is the team’s most productive player against the Bolts with 19 points in 37 games, but he is struggling mightily this season with only 10 points in 28 games, and he has been held off the scoresheet in the last six games. Nick Suzuki has 12 points in 18 tilts, while Josh Anderson has 10 points in 21 duels. As for Cole Caufield, who is on an 11-game point streak, he has only 6 points in 12 games.
The Bolts aren’t the Canadiens’ favourite team; the Florida outfit has won seven of the last 10 games between the two sides, including the previous meeting. They are currently in second place in the Atlantic Division, just one point ahead of the Canadiens, who are fourth in the division and outside the playoff picture, one point behind the Pittsburgh Penguins and the New York Rangers, who are in the wildcard spots. It’s worth noting that the Rangers have already played 31 games, while Montreal has played only 28 so far. Interestingly, the Habs will be taking on those two teams later this week, visiting Pittsburgh on Thursday night and New York on Saturday.
Tonight’s game is scheduled at 7:00 PM, and you can catch it on RDS, TSN2 and The Spot.
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