Game 45: Montreal Canadiens vs. Toronto Maple Leafs
Start time: 7:00 PM EST / 4:00 PM PST
In Canada: CBC, Sportsnet E/O/P (English), TVA Sports (French)
In the United States: NHL Network
Streaming: CBC Gem, Sportsnet+
The Montreal Canadiens left home after the Christmas break to play eight of their next 10 games on the road versus some of the league’s very best. With their playoff hopes barely alive, the near-impossible tour of elite clubs could have easily brought an early end to their season. Three weeks later, they’ve risen to a form that has them as one of the NHL’s toughest teams, showing few weaknesses on their way to an 8-1-1 record in what had to be one of the most difficult 10-game stretches any team will face this season.
Montreal is no longer looking behind, but ahead in the standings. Glancing all the way up to the Toronto Maple Leafs 10 points up in the Atlantic Division lead is probably too ambitious; their focus should be first on getting past the plummeting Boston Bruins before trying to reel in the Tampa Bay Lightning. But tonight’s game versus Toronto is yet another chance to measure themselves versus one of the league’s top-ranked clubs.
| Canadiens | Statistics | Maple Leafs |
|---|---|---|
| 22-18-4 | Record | 28-18-2 |
| 48.2% (26th) | Scoring-chances-for % | 49.6% (18th) |
| 3.00 (16th) | Goals per game | 3.04 (13th) |
| 3.23 (26th) | Goals against per game | 2.85 (12th) |
| 20.9% (16th) | PP% | 20.8% (18th) |
| 82.5% (8th) | PK% | 81.4% (12th) |
| 1-1-0 | Head-to-Head Record | 1-1-0 |
The teams have split the first two games of the season series. Samuel Montembeault stole the first win for the Canadiens in the season-opener, but the Maple Leafs had a much easier time in the next game on November 9 when they rode special teams (two power-play goals, one scored short-handed) to a 4-1 win.
That was the third consecutive game in which they scored multiple power-play goals. They haven’t accomplished that feat since, and come into tonight’s game ranking in the lower half of the league in man-advantage efficiency. A lingering injury to Auston Matthews isn’t helping matters, as the team captain only has 17 goals in 31 games played after ending last season with 69. Instead, it’s William Nylander who leads the team in goals with 26, aiming to break his high-water mark of 40 he’s had in each of the past two years.
The power play is just one area in which the Leafs rank about average in the league, They’ve managed to get to the top seed in the division by doing everything well, but no one thing at an elite level. Defence is one of those things, a critical area they needed to improve under head coach Craig Berube, but that has begun to slip recently. It has resulted in a three-game losing streak that was just broken by a 4-3 overtime win versus New Jersey. Overall, Toronto ranks 12th allowing 2.85 goals per game. Since Matthews’s return from a month-long absence on November 30, however, their 3.08 goals against per game rank 18th; Montreal is 12th in that same span, which represented half of their season played so far at a 22-game sample, surrendering 2.73.
Defence is the biggest area of improvement Montreal has seen, and it’s led into every every other area of play. Montembeault had to make 48 saves in the season-opener to claim a 1-0 win. Recently, it’s been rare that an opponent registers even 30 on the Habs, with the Dallas Stars in both recent games and the Florida Panthers in the first one the only teams to hit that mark during this post-Christmas 10-game run.
Despite the 10-point gap, the Canadiens might be the better team at this point in time coming into this match. For several years now they’ve always been the plucky underdog that could raise its level to compete with a contending Leafs team. There’s no raising required for this third game of the season series, and the national spotlight will shine brightly on the Habs’ rapid rise to a competitive level on Hockey Day in Canada.
