Game 6: Montreal Canadiens @ New York Islanders
Start time: 7:00 PM EDT / 4:00 PM PDT
In Canada: CityTV, Sportsnet (English), TVA Sports (French)
In the Islanders region: MSGSN
Streaming: ESPN+, Sportsnet+
It has been a difficult start for the Montreal Canadiens this season, more difficult than I think we were all expecting it to be. The team’s story last season was playing well enough to win most of their games but often coming up a goal short. This season, they aren’t playing the same style, seeming to rely on the injection of skill that has been added and not just putting in the effort to maintain control of the puck.
Added to that rocky beginning is the concerning amount of injuries to top players on the team. The club lost Patrik Laine before the season started, had Mike Matheson miss half the game on Saturday, and now Kaiden Guhle, the team’s most stable defenceman through the opening five games, is out with an upper-body injury, a suspected concussion from his hit into the boards versus Los Angeles on Thursday. Then yesterday we saw video of Juraj Slafkovský leaving practice early after feeling some discomfort in his left shoulder. Montreal enjoyed relatively good health for its stars a season ago, which seemed to point to a change in the team’s injury luck, but it’s rearing its ugly head in the opening weeks of the season once again.
Guhle’s injury has led to more skill joining the team as Logan Mailloux has been recalled from the Laval Rocket. Jayden Struble, who provides more of the stability the team lacks with Guhle out, is also healthy and ready to play his first game of the year. We’ll see which of the two gets in the lineup this evening — or possibly both depending on how Matheson feels at game time.
The decimated lineup will be taking on the New York Islanders on Long Island tonight as they hit the road for a single game following a three-game homestand. The Islanders are off to a fair start with four points in four games, and with a couple of overtime losses they have managed to take points from three of those matches.
Canadiens | Statistics | Islanders |
---|---|---|
2-3-0 | Record | 1-1-2 |
32.4% (31st) | Scoring-chances-for % | 48.9% (19th) |
2.60 (24th) | Goals per game | 2.50 )28th) |
3.40 (18th) | Goals against per game | 2.75 (11th) |
18.2% (19th) | PP% | 10.0% (27th) |
93.8% (3rd) | PK% | 71.4% (26th) |
2-0-1 | Head-to-Head Record (23-24) | 1-2-0 |
Most recently, the Islanders went into overtime in a goalless contest with the St. Louis Blues, and suffered their second extra-time defeat of the year. It is already the second time in four matches that New York has been shut out as Lou Lamoriello’s roster continues to have issues generating offence — when not playing the shockingly poor defence of the Colorado Avalanche anyway. Ranking 22nd in goals was one reason why New York failed to make the post-season last year, and it hasn’t been an encouraging start to the new campaign.
The Islanders did make one key addition in the off-season, adding Anthony Duclair to the mix to provide a much-needed boost of offence, So far, he’s been doing just that, co-leading the team with Brock Nelson at three points (2G, 1A). However, Montreal, despite its documented struggles, has five players with higher point-per-game rates.
Semyon Varlamov will be between the pipes for the Islanders this evening, their clear number two goalie through the opening week. His save percentage (.865) is almost one hundred points lower than Ilya Sorokin’s (.953) after allowing seven goals in his two starts. No doubt a game versus a Canadiens squad struggling to find consistency has been seen as an opportunity by coach Patrick Roy to get his netminder back on his game, giving him a Saturday night contest on home ice.
If the Canadiens believe their days of being one of the bottom teams in the league are over, they should perceive it as a slight when an opponent sends out its second-best option to the crease, and maybe that will be the motivation the team has been lacking through five games so far. They’re already dealing with adversity with their injuries, and surely one of those two things will inspire the effort they proved capable of last year and finally show the form we know they’re capable of.