Game 74: Montreal Canadiens vs. Florida Panthers
Start time: 7:00 PM EDT / 4:00 PM PDT
In the Canadiens region: TSN2 (English), RDS (French)
In the Panthers region: Scripps
Streaming: ESPN+, RDS, TSN+
The Canadiens were perfectly happy to see the clock run out on Sunday afternoon in Sunrise, Florida to end their only win of the final long road trip of the season, just wanting to return home after a four-city journey. Niko Mikkola had other ideas, however. Clearly upset at losing to the Canadiens for a third time this season (making Montreal the only team other than the Eastern Conference-leading Washington Capitals to do so), he fired a slapshot down the ice despite trailing by two goals, hitting David Savard in the process. Yesterday, the NHL fined Mikkola $5000 for the incident. Tonight, the Canadiens will probably have their own ideas on doling out punishment.
The teams aren’t going to meet in the opening round of the playoffs; that series would feature the two aforementioned clubs that have been unfazed by playing the reigning champions if Montreal does make it. What this situation that arose out of nowhere might accomplish is injecting a bit of life into two teams that need it. The Canadiens hadn’t won since March 18 before the win in Florida and were struggling to put together the strong finish this latter-half run to the post-season requires. The Panthers, meanwhile, have two regulation wins since the trade deadline and have fallen from first place in the Atlantic Division to the third seed, putting home-ice advantage in jeopardy. Both sides are now riled up for this game and only need to carry that energy with them for two more weeks to achieve their respective goal.
| Canadiens | Statistics | Panthers |
|---|---|---|
| 34-30-9 | Record | 44-26-3 |
| 47.7% (25th) | Scoring-chances-for % | 55.0% (2nd) |
| 2.97 (16th) | Goals per game | 3.14 (12th) |
| 3.35 (26th) | Goals against per game | 2.69 (9th) |
| 20.9% (20th) | PP% | 24.1% (10th) |
| 80.3% (13th) | PK% | 81.2% (10th) |
| 3-0-0 | Head-to-Head Record | 0-3-0 |
It’s no surprise that Lane Hutson played the starring role in Sunday’s win because he’d been the team’s best player all road trip long. His play was pinpointed as the thing that could get the Habs back in the win column in the last preview, and it was a critical two points he helped the team claim. If the Panthers want to channel their frustration of losing every game this season to Montreal into something other than firing the puck at a player who has willingly blocked 168 shots this season, they will be best served by limiting Hutson’s offensive play. But you can just add them to the list of clubs that probably thought they could easily contain the small defenceman this season and yet haven’t come up with an answer.
The best response for Montreal would be having more players join the fight — not in the post-whistle scrums that we’re bound to see often tonight, but just doing their part to keep the Panthers on the defensive side of the puck. The team needs to get something out of Emil Heineman, Jake Evans, and Joel Armia to help them scrape together a few more points from these final nine games. We did see on Sunday after the move of Heineman to a line with Alex Newhook and Patrik Laine that he has something left in the tank and brought a missing element to a duo with otherwise very different skill sets. Evans had four points in the month of March and none in his final six games, while Armia’s pointless streak has reached double digits. The two were reportedly drawing a lot of interest as a ready-made penalty killing duo at the deadline, but they haven’t combined for a short-handed goal since February 4 in San Jose, and they don’t get the rushes while at a man disadvantage that were a feature in the season’s opening half.
Montreal is getting fairly consistent play from the top line, Christian Dvorak’s trio with Josh Anderson and Brendan Gallagher, and improving performances from Newhook and Laine as they seem to be settling in the deeper we go into the season. Facing a Panthers team that will still be missing some of its star players, having that much of Montreal’s lineup playing well may prove to be enough once again to complete the sweep of the Panthers and stay at the top of he pack on another busy day for the wild-card hopefuls, but it’s also a great time to get some others going.
At this point of the season every Canadiens win is big. It’s one more victory that trailing teams need to manage with the schedule winding down while already sitting lower in the standings. That means Montreal has a bit of a margin for error, but ideally they could go on a bit of a run, bank some of the wins they need, and make the final week of action as simple as possible when their season will be on the line.
Record needed for 88 points
- (8) Montreal Canadiens: 5-3-1 (77 pts., 9 GR)
- (9) New York Rangers: 5-2-1 (77 pts., 8 GR)
- (10) Columbus Blue Jackets: 6-3-1 (75 pts.,10 GR)
- (11) Detroit Red Wings: 6-1-2 (74 pts., 9 GR)
- (12) New York Islanders: 6-1-2 (74 pts., 9 GR)
