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Canadiens vs. Hurricanes: Game preview, start time, Tale of the Tape, and how to watch

Anton Rasegard/EOTP

Montreal Canadiens vs. Carolina Hurricanes

How to watch

Start time: 7:00 PM EDT / 4:00 PM PDT
In Canada: Citytv, Sportsnet (English), TVAS (French)
In the Hurricanes region: Bally Sports South
Streaming: ESPN+, Sportsnet Now

Thursday night’s matchup against the Florida Panthers started on a fun note with Sean Farrell scoring his first NHL goal. The opening goal of the night came 1:23 into the first period – the fastest by a rookie on home ice since 1918 — on his first shift, during his Bell Centre debut. Pretty darn sweet.

That’s where the fun ended. While the Canadiens kinda-sorta-at-times kept up with the Panthers, they just weren’t jiving as well as they have been lately with passes being missed, Michael Pezzetta constantly getting tangled up in the corners, Nick Suzuki trying to get too fancy by going between a Panthers player’s feet with the puck but it totally backfired and he ended up giving the puck away instead that lead to a goal, and at one point Rafaël Harvey-Pinard even accidentally took Suzuki out. Luckily, the captain was wearing his bubble wrap under his uniform. To rub salt in the wounds, Matthew Tkachuk grabbed a hat trick in the 5-2 loss.

Canadiens Statistics Hurricanes
30-40-6 Record 47-18-9
45.8% (28th) Scoring-chances-for % 60.3% (1st)
2.82 (26th) Goals per game 3.23 (16th)
3.67 (28th) Goals against per game 2.59 (2nd)
17.4% (26th) PP% 20.4% (21st)
73.2% (29th) PK% 83.6% (2nd)
0-1-1 H2H Record 2-0-0

With just six games left on the docket, Team Tank and Team Win for the Fun of It are out in full force. Team Tank may get a leg up as the Canadiens go up against the Carolina Hurricanes tonight – the top team in the Metropolitan Division which has clinched its playoff spot for a fifth consecutive season.

Since the last time these two teams met, the Hurricanes lost an important piece of their puzzle. It was announced that Andrei Svechnikov, who is third on the team in goals (23 in 64 games) and points (55) will be out for the remainder of the season with a torn ACL. Don’t get your hopes up for a victory though; they still have Sebastian Aho who has been enjoying finding the back of the net in each of his last six contests.

The Canes are coming into tonight’s showdown looking for a season sweep against the Canadiens. However, for a team that sits in the midst of battling for home-ice advantage in the Eastern Conference, they’ve been floundering of late and are currently riding a three-game losing streak. Their latest loss came at the hands of the Detroit Red Wings on Thursday with less than four seconds left in regulation.

David Savard is the latest Hab to join the overflowing press box of injured players after not making it to puck drop on Thursday due to a lower-body injury. Joel Armia may have given up his stool after joining Friday’s practice in a contact jersey, so he could be ready to return.

But, as this is the 2022-23 season, we must balance the force, so Harvey-Pinard missed practice. Seeing that he’s been a source of entertainment this season, let’s hope that it’s just for a therapy day as reported.

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