Game 39: Montreal Canadiens @ Colorado Avalanche
Start time: 7:00 PM EST / 4:00 PM PST
In Canada: CityTV, Sportsnet East (English), TVA Sports (French)
In the Avalanche region: Altitude
Streaming: ESPN+, Sportsnet+
Maybe you can see it as a positive sign that the Canadiens are now playing well enough that they can fall into trap games, as they did last night in Chicago. There’s no question that they had the superior lineup to the team hosting them on Friday night, even without David Savard and Patrik Laine, and they showed that in a second period in which they recorded 19 shots on goal (40 total), but too many penalties and solid goaltending from Arvid Soderblom prevented them from getting a win they should have had.
It’s a shame they didn’t, because with some other results last night there was a chance to move into a playoff spot today. Even so, the fact that they can see that second wild-card position so close ahead is proof of their incredible turnaround, and there’s plenty of time left in the season to get there and perhaps even higher.
In the last couple of games, the Canadiens have gone into Las Vegas and snapped an opponent’s six-game winning streak, then traveled to Chicago and helped halt the Blackhawks’ run of losses at five. With the turn of the new year, Montreal has been a streak-buster, and they will need to be again since the Avalanche have also won six consecutive games.
| Canadiens | Statistics | Avalanche |
|---|---|---|
| 17-18-3 | Record | 24-15-0 |
| 48.2% (25th) | Scoring-chances-for % | 54.7% (2nd) |
| 3.00 (18th) | Goals per game | 3.46 (5th) |
| 3.42 (28th) | Goals against per game | 3.28 (25th) |
| 21.7% (17th) | PP% | 23.7% (10th) |
| 82.4% (8th) | PK% | 76.2% (24th) |
| 2-0-0 | Head-to-Head Record (23-24) | 0-2-0 |
Colorado is seeing a mid-season surge after a slow start . It was goaltending that held them back in the first third of the year. Their netminding was so poor that not even the prolific offence of Nathan MacKinnon (leading the league with 50 assists and 64 points) and Mikko Rantanen (third in the NHL with 56 points) was enough to get them wins some nights. On 11 occasions they allowed at least five goals in the opening two months, and those games serve as the bulk of their losses.
Neither Alexandar Georgiev nor Justus Annunen could be relied upon for key saves to start the year. It was no surprise that goaltending was the weakest link on the team going into the campaign, but it was threatening to prevent them from even making the playoffs this year. At the end of November, three losses in four games dropped them out of a wild-card spot, and that forced general manager Chris MacFarland to act.
On December 1, he traded Annunen to the Nashville Predators for Scott Wedgewood. Eight days later, Georgiev was swapped for the San Jose Sharks’ Mackenzie Blackwood. The improvement was immediate for the team; out went two goalies who had combined for a save percentage under .875, in came two who have combined for a mark of .924 so far. Blackwood himself has yet to allow more than two goals in a game for his new team and has taken over as the team’s starter, responsible for five of the six wins on the current streak. That includes getting credit for one after coming on in relief in the most recent 6-5 comeback shootout win versus the Buffalo Sabres.
If the Canadiens are to get back in the win column, that’s the task ahead of them: solve a goaltender who rarely allows goals and contain a team that scores an average of three-and-a-half each game. It seems like too tall a mountain to overcome, but Montreal has made a habit of that on this road trip, and a loss to the worst team in the league last night might be the jolt they need to make it happen and avoid their first winless back-to-back set of the season.
