Game 69: Montreal Canadiens vs. Colorado Avalanche
Start time: 7:00 PM EDT / 4:00 PM PDT
In the Canadiens region: CityTV, Sportsnet East (English), TVA Sports (French)
In the Avalanche region: Altitude
Streaming: ESPN+, CityTV, Sportsnet+
Falling in overtime to the New York Islanders wasn’t the ideal result for the Montreal Canadiens. Not only did that give the extra point and another tick in the regulation and overtime wins (ROW) column to the team behind Montreal in the wild-card race, it also means that the season-series tiebreaker (points from the most recent game at each venue) is a wash and brings goal differential into play as a potential tiebreaker, which isn’t in Montreal’s favour. Looking at the full picture, the Habs still remain two points ahead with the same number of games played, so they still sit in an advantageous position.
Record needed for 92 points
- (7) Ottawa Senators: 6-5-3 (77 points, 14 games remaining)
- (8) Montreal Canadiens: 8-4-2 (74 pts., 14 GR)
- (9) New York Islanders: 9-3-2 (72 pts., 14 GR)
- (10) New York Rangers: 9-1-2 (72 pts., 12 GR)
- (11) Columbus Blue Jackets: 10-2-1 (71 pts.,13 GR)
- (10) Detroit Red Wings: 10-2-2 (70 pts., 14 GR)
- (12) Boston Bruins: 11-0-1 (69 pts.,12 GR)
While we can lament the points lost here and there throughout the 82-game season, there are also some surprising points gained that have helped place Montreal in a playoff spot with 14 games to go. Points like the two earned by Jakub Dobes as the Canadiens wrapped up their post-Christmas road trip in Denver when he stopped 22 of 23 shots through 65 minutes of action and then blanked Jonathan Drouin and Mikko Rantanen in the shootout. That game, in which the Habs were heavy underdogs, could easily have been a regulation loss. If you want to single out that individual result, you can say that’s currently the difference between Montreal sitting in a playoff spot versus not.
| Canadiens | Statistics | Avalanche |
|---|---|---|
| 33-27-8 | Record | 42-25-3 |
| 47.9% (27th) | Scoring-chances-for % | 54.5% (3rd) |
| 3.00 (13th) | Goals per game | 3.33 (5th) |
| 3.25 (25th) | Goals against per game | 2.83 (11th) |
| 21.9% (17th) | PP% | 24.1% (10th) |
| 81.0% (12th) | PK% | 78.6% (15th) |
| 1-0-0 | Head-to-Head Record | 0-0-1 |
Rantanen, who scored the only goal for Colorado in that game on the power play, is with his second team since that game on January 4. While both coach Jared Bednar and reigning Hart Trophy-winner Nathan MacKinnon expressed their shock for several days after the move, the on-ice results didn’t skip a beat. And since the reason for the trade was not wanting to commit to an eight-figure cap hit for another player with MacKinnon and Cale Makar already commanding superstar salaries, that freed the team up financially to make some upgrades to the roster.
They did see immediate results from Martin Necas, who was acquired from the Carolina Hurricanes in the Rantanen trade. In 21 games with his new team he has 19 points, which ranks behind only the two aforementioned elite players in that time. One of their trade deadline adds, Charlie Coyle, has only produced two assists in seven games so far, but Brock Nelson has four points in the same span, looking most comfortable while putting two pucks past Linus Ullmark in a blowout of the Ottawa Senators a game ago. They also have the boost of Valeri Nichushkin returning from his time in the player assistance program to score 11 points in 11 games so far.
It was a fast start for Colorado in that game in Kanata on Thursday night, which the Habs will need to be wary of. That game was over before the first period ended, and the Canadiens, though they’ve overcome a few deficits already this week, would have a difficult time coming back if something similar were to happen tonight. That means staying out of the penalty box because not only are they up against the league’s 10th-ranked power play, they’ve also dropped from being one of the elite penalty-killing clubs to sitting 12th in that situation after allowing two goals to each of the Seattle Kraken and Islanders in recent games. That’s twice in about a week the penalty kill has allowed multiple goals after only doing so seven times in the first 64 games. This isn’t a good time for the team to begin slipping in the one aspect of their play that has been dependable all season long.
