Game 13: Montreal Canadiens vs. Calgary Flames
Start time: 7:00 PM EST / 4:00 PM PST
In the Canadiens region: TSN2 (English), RDS (French)
In the Flames region: SNW
Streaming: ESPN+, Sportsnet+, RDS, TSN+
It’s not a great time right now for the Montreal Canadiens. Looking to put an 8-2 home trouncing by the Seattle Kraken behind them, the Habs embarked on a “shades of 2010” tour to Washington, D.C. and Pittsburgh. The road trip wasn’t all bad—the Canadiens played decent hockey for a fair chunk of it. However, the Tricolore were heavily punished during their concentration lapses. Making major errors when playing against Alex Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby tends to not be a recipe for success.
Now, mired in the midst of a three-game losing streak, the Canadiens return to Montreal for a brief respite before heading out on the road again. Before they leave the comforts of home, however, the Habs play host to the Calgary Flames, who are kicking off a three-game eastern road swing.
Canadiens | Statistics | Flames |
---|---|---|
4-7-1 | Record | 6-5-1 |
44.3% (29th) | Scoring-chances-for % | 48.8% (21st) |
2.75 (23rd) | Goals per game | 2.83 (20th) |
4.08 (31st) | Goals against per game | 3.17 (18th) |
20.9% (14th) | PP% | 16.2% (22nd) |
81.8% (13th) | PK% | 72.5% (25th) |
0-2-0 | Head-to-Head Record (’23-’24) | 2-0-0 |
Back in 2021-22, the Flames fully intended and expected to contend for the Stanley Cup for years to come. A second-round defeat that season to the Edmonton Oilers validated that trajectory. However, the subsequent two years threw cold water on Calgary’s ambitions. Back-to-back postseason-free seasons forced major moves from the front office. To that point, the top four leading scorers from that 2021-22 season—Matthew Tkachuk, Johnny Gaudreau, Andrew Mangiapane, and Elias Lindholm—as well as starting goaltender Jacob Markstrom, are all gone.
Calgary’s intentions for 2024-25 are unclear. The team lacks depth beyond its best three forwards (Nazem Kadri, Jonathan Huberdeau, and Mikael Backlund) and top pair (Mackenzie Weegar and Rasmus Andersson). At the same time, they don’t have a bumper crop of blue-chip prospects to wean into the lineup like the San Jose Sharks or Anaheim Ducks. Connor Zary (7 points) and Matt Coronato (2 points in 7 games) are trying to build off rookie seasons, while Yegor Sharangovich (1 point in 5 games) is looking to prove that last year was no fluke.
No, the team’s offence right now is by and large from the veterans: Andersson leads the team in scoring with 11 points, while Huberdeau has bounced back with 8. Andrei Kuzmenko and Anthony Mantha both have 7, while Blake Coleman and Kadri have chipped in 6. However, a lot of that offence came in the first half of the young campaign so far. The Flames started off—for the lack of a better word—on fire, winning five of their first six and scoring three or more goals in each of those five victories. Since then, things have cooled down considerably. Calgary enters Montreal having now lost five of their last six, having hit the three-goal threshold only twice during that span.
Indeed, three appears to be a magic number: the Flames are 6-1 when they reach the mark and 0-4-1 when they don’t. Fortunately for the Canadiens, they can score enough to hit that threshold—reaching three goals for seven times in 12 games. Unfortunately, they have a much harder time preventing teams from reaching that landmark—allowing three or more a whopping nine times during that same span.
In preparation for this matchup, Martin St-Louis is continuing to tinker around the edges—this time moving Jake Evans up to the second-line centre position between Alex Newhook and Juraj Slafkovský. From a merit perspective, it’s difficult to say that Evans has not been the second-best centre on the team this season. However, this is hardly the situation that anyone associated with the Canadiens would have hoped for heading into the campaign.
On defence, Kaiden Guhle returns to the right side next to Mike Matheson, while the Lane Hutson-David Savard pairing appears to be locked in. Arber Xhekaj, Justin Barron, and Jayden Struble will contest the remaining three spots, with Struble currently slotted as the seventh man. Cayden Primeau and Samuel Montembeault have rotated starts over the last five games, and if the trend holds, Primeau would get the nod between the pipes.
Calgary’s goaltending situation is equally foggy. With Markstrom’s departure, Dan Vladař and Dustin Wolf alternated the first eleven games before Vladař’s shutout against the New Jersey Devils earned him a second consecutive outing. However, the resulting 4-2 loss to the Edmonton Oilers—where Vladař was marginally outplayed by Stuart Skinner—may mean that the Canadiens will face Wolf instead.
To a man, the Canadiens are saying the right things. They are acknowledging the issues with their effort levels, the deficiencies in their play style, and that point production can (and is) masking deeper issues. The question though, is when does talk translate to on-ice results? St-Louis and the Canadiens are hoping Tuesday can be that night, since a three-game losing streak can easily spiral into six, seven, or worse with road matchups against the New Jersey Devils, Toronto Maple Leafs, Buffalo Sabres, and Minnesota Wild looming on the horizon.