Game 18: Montreal Canadiens vs. Columbus Blue Jackets
Start time: 7:00 PM EST / 4:00 PM PST
In Canada: CityTV, Sportsnet East (English), TVA Sports (French)
In the Blue Jackets region: Bally Sports Ohio
Streaming: ESPN+, Sportsnet+
It’s not immediately apparent from a 1-3 record on the road trip that saw the Montreal Canadiens surrender 17 goals, but the defensive game has taken major steps forward. In that span, they allowed a total of 4.77 expected goals at five-on-five; there were three individual games earlier in the year in which they amassed more than four. A combination of poor goaltending and the offence taking a back seat as the players focus all of their attention on defending kept them from making up any ground.
Defence was by far the biggest deficiency the team carried through the first month of the season, so abandoning everything else to rectify that situation was a necessary evil. Now the task is to maintain this defensive composure while also finding a way to score goals of their own. Despite the good expected goals against numbers, they were still outpaced in that stat in three of the four games, with the loss in Toronto the only one they finished with more.
Montreal probably deserves a bit better from its recent games, and the Columbus Blue Jackets also deserve to be higher than their spot at 27th in the league standings. Like Montreal, their goaltending has been letting them down, The Blue Jackets give up fewer than 30 shots per night, and get more scoring opportunities than their opponents, but are down in Montreal’s section of the rankings in terms of actual goals allowed.
| Canadiens | Statistics | Blue Jackets |
|---|---|---|
| 5-10-2 | Record | 5-8-2 |
| 46.7% (26th) | Scoring-chances-for % | 51.6% (12th) |
| 2.71 (T-22nd) | Goals per game | 3.07 )16th) |
| 4.06 (32nd) | Goals against per game | 3.60 (29th) |
| 22.0% (9th) | PP% | 18.4% (19th) |
| 79.7% (18th) | PK% | 81.4% (13th) |
| 3-0-0 | Head-to-Head Record (23-24) | 0-2-1 |
The Blue Jackets had performed even more poorly than Montreal on their road trip, which took them to the west coast of the U.S. They went 0-4-1, bringing a losing streak to six games, giving up four goals or more five times in that run. But last night’s return to Nationwide Arena was a like their homecoming game, with the bad — and perhaps worsening — Pittsburgh Penguins in town. The cannon got a good workout after a couple of weeks of silence as the home side shot past the Pens in the third period to earn a 6-2 win.
Both teams will be feeling good about their play going into tonight’s match, so it shouldn’t be the comedy of errors you sometimes see when bottom teams play each other. At least we hope that won’t be the case for Montreal after the progress they’ve made in their defensive play. It should be a competitive match between two teams that want to start rising in the standings and show what the past few years of accumulating talent can produce.
Despite it being two young teams on the ice, veterans will be the feature of the pre-game discussion. Fresh off his induction into the Hockey Hall of Fame, Shea Weber will be honoured at the Bell Centre for his career that ended following the Habs’ run to the Stanley Cup Final in 2021. Many of the players already had their chance to congratulate him at the ceremony, but now it’s the fans’ turn to honour the former captain.
It is also Sean Monahan’s first time playing the Canadiens since he was traded to Winnipeg last season. He not only performed very well in his brief time with the Habs, but also netted the organization two first-round picks. Monahan is still playing at a top level with his new team, currently second in Blue Jackets scoring with 13 points in 16 games, and serving as one of their top faceoff options. Though he’ll be one of the players the coaching staff pinpoints in its discussions about the defensive plan for the game, his former teammates and everyone in attendance at the Bell Centre is sure to offer him a warm welcome.
