Game 57: Montreal Canadiens @ Ottawa Senators
Start time: 7:00 PM EST / 4:00 PM PST
In Canada: CityTV, Sportsnet East (English), TVA Sports (French)
Streaming: ESPN+, Sportsnet+
The 4 Nations Face-Off is complete after Canada claimed the title on Thursday night. Now the NHL returns for the final two months of the regular season before it begins its regular run to a Stanley Cup championship. On the first day back after the pause for the international tournament, 28 of the league’s 32 teams are in action, two of them being the Montreal Canadiens and Ottawa Senators in Kanata.
It’s the second of four games between the Atlantic Division rivals this season. It was looking like the final three games of the series series would be important to both teams for the playoff chase when the Canadiens were rolling back in January, but now it’s just about Montreal trying to play spoiler and not allowing Ottawa to gain the upper hand as the teams rebuild at the same time. Ottawa is currently in the first wild-card spot, two points up on the Columbus Blue Jackets and Boston Bruins in the next two positions outside the playoff picture, so the six points remaining between the Habs and Senators could be critical to Ottawa’s hopes.
Ottawa’s slump heading into the pause for the 4 Nations wasn’t as pronounced as Montreal’s. The Senators lost three in a row compared to the Habs’ eight losses in nine games. More concerning for them than their short losing streak are the mounting injuries to key players. Both Josh Norris and Shane Pinto missed the team’s first practice after the break, and they also have Brady Tkachuk returning from the international event with an issue that held him out of practices leading up to the final. He powered through the injury to represent Team USA, but questions remain about how it will impact him as he returns to NHL action. That’s a significant portion of the forward group that isn’t at its best when the games mean the most in the final third of the season.
| Canadiens | Statistics | Senators |
|---|---|---|
| 25-26-5 | Record | 29-23-4 |
| 49.0% (23rd) | Scoring-chances-for % | 50.2% (13th) |
| 2.88 (16th) | Goals per game | 2.80 (21st) |
| 3.43 (29th) | Goals against per game | 2.77 (10th) |
| 20.7% (19th) | PP% | 23.4% (10th) |
| 81.7% (8th) | PK% | 78.2% (20th) |
| 1-0-0 | Head-to-Head Record | 0-1-0 |
The Canadiens have better news on the injury front. Not only was josh Anderson back at practice yesterday, but Emil Heineman took up his previous spot next to Jake Evans and Joel Armia and looks poised to return to play five weeks after injuring his wrist after getting hit by a car. His absence has been felt as Martin St-Louis had difficulty recreating the scoring depth the team enjoyed with the Swede in the lineup,, and the power play had major issues without the secondary shooting option. Especially given Ottawa’s injury issues, his return could be a deciding factor in tonight’s contest.
He might help even out the special-teams battle somewhat, and the Habs probably need a goal or two on the man advantage to match Ottawa. The Senators should still have their top three point producers on the power play — Drake Batherson (23 points), Tim Stützle (22), and Jake Sanderson (20) — active for the game, players who have helped the Senators hold a top-10 rank in man-advantage efficiency. Ottawa isn’t nearly as effective offensively without the opponent being down a skater, tied for last in the league at just 1.94 goals scored per 60 minutes of five-on-five time, so the ideal strategy is to not allow them to put their best five players on the ice with space to work with.
Other than seeing Heineman’s return to play, the other most interesting Canadiens player to watch might be Lane Hutson. Both he and coach Martin St-Louis spoke this week about how the defenceman is having to adapt to teams learning his tendencies. Hutson says he wants to get back to the type of play he showed to open the season that led to a couple of long point streaks. It’s not often a rookie gets a two-week break to rest partway through his first demanding NHL campaign, and we’ll see if that opportunity to recuperate from the rigours of playing an average of 22:31 three or four times a week has a positive effect on his play.
