Montreal Canadiens vs. Nashville Predators
How to watch
Start time: 7:00 PM EST / 4:00 PM PST
In Canadiens: TSN2 (English), RDS (French)
In the Predators region: Bally Sports South
On a night that will honour one of the classiest, flashiest, and most exciting former National Hockey League defenceman in recent history, P.K. Subban, two of his former teams, the Montreal Canadiens and Nashville Predators, will face off at the Bell Centre in downtown Montreal.
Subban, 33, who spent the first seven seasons of his career with Montreal, then the next three with Nashville before ending his career with the New Jersey Devils last summer, will be honoured in what should be a very emotional ceremony, in the city he proudly called home from 2009 to 2016.
Tale of the Tape
| Canadiens | Statistics | Predators |
|---|---|---|
| 16-22-3 | Record | 19-15-6 |
| 44.19% (28th) | Scoring-chances-for % | 48.33% (23rd) |
| 2.56 (29th) | Goals per game | 2.79 (26th) |
| 3.80 (29th) | Goals against per game | 2.92 (14th) |
| 14.8% (32nd) | PP% | 17.3% (28th) |
| 74.0% (23rd) | PK% | 80.2% (13th) |
| 0-1-0 | H2H Record | 1-0-0 |
Montreal just doesn’t seem capable of stringing consecutive efforts together, having not earned victories in back-to-back games since November 23 and 25. Tonight they will look to get some bittersweet revenge against the Predators as they come for a visit at the Bell Centre. Nashville (19-14-6) doubled up on them 6-3 back on January 3 in Tennessee.
Montreal (16-22-3) was able to snap a season-high seven-game losing streak last on Saturday, just getting by the St. Louis Blues in a 5-4 nail-biter. Forward Joel Armia, who had been goalless through the first 26 games of the season, had scored a pair, and now has three in his past three games.
However in their most recent game, they came up firing blanks when they were shut out for already the third time this season, and first time since November 29, a 4-0 loss to the San Jose Sharks. Martin Jones made 21 saves for the Seattle Kraken for his 19th win of the season, and Sam Montembeault made 37 saves in the loss. After starting this season looking stronger and more confident, Montembeault has now dropped five of his last six games.
The Predators are in a different situation, having won four of their last five, and are 7-2-2 in their last 11 games. They saw their season-high four-game winning streak come to an end last night as they dropped a close 2-1 decision against the Auston Matthews-less Toronto Maple Leafs. Mitch Marner scored a power-play marker with 1:15 left on the clock to seal the deal for them after Nashville’s Mark Jankowski took a late double-minor for high-sticking. Filip Forsberg, who leads the Predators in scoring so far this season, had the lone goal, his 17th, in the defeat.
Goaltender Juuse Saros has been on a tear of late, making 33 saves in the loss. Last week in a game against the Carolina Hurricanes he established a career-high, and one of the top in NHL history when he made 64 saves in a 5-3 Nashville win, including 28 in the third period alone.
It was announced on Wednesday that Brendan Gallagher, who scored one of the three goals when these two teams met just over a week ago, will be sidelined for six weeks rather than the original timeframe of two. He had just returned to action for last week’s game, but re-tweaked the injury and will not return to action anytime soon. Despite only four goals on the year, his presence will be missed to help the youngsters. He hasn’t played a full campaign since back-to-back 82-game campaigns in 2017-18 and 2018-19.
Despite the Canadiens’ struggles and woes all season long, tonight will surely be one to remember and bring the fans to their feet as they honour P.K. and the many great memories he brought to the organization and to the community.
There won’t be a dry eye … at the rink.
