Game 50: Montreal Canadiens vs. Minnesota Wild
Start time: 7:00 PM EST / 4:00 PM PST
In the Canadiens region: TSN2 (English), RDS (French)
In the Wild region: FanDuel Sports Network North/Wisconsin
Streaming: ESPN+, RDS, TSN+
After a couple of difficult losses to begin the road trip, the Montreal Canadiens visited the rink of an Atlantic Division rival. It wasn’t a pretty effort with a low number of shots for the Habs, but they managed to win a high-scoring match before moving on to play the Minnesota Wild.
That is not just to the Canadiens’ current situation, but also the one they experienced in November of 2024 when they limped into Minnesota with a 4-9-2 record. On that night 14 months ago, they lost 3-0 to the Wild, but played one of their best games of the season to that point. They carried that improved play through the next couple of weeks, and then really took off when Patrik Laine joined the team for the first time.
Montreal doesn’t need as dramatic a resuscitation of their season as they started in Minnesota a year ago, but they do need to pull themselves out of a funk that has seen them getting outplayed in recent games. It could just have been that the fatigue of playing seven times in 11 days didn’t allow the players to recover their energy stores, and considering how slow the normally speedy Habs looked versus the Ottawa Senators on Saturday, that does seem to be at least part of the equation. They’ve just had two days off for the first time since January 5 to 6, so it should be apparent early in tonight’s match whether they’ve benefited from the additional rest. It’s a sequence of tough teams coming up for Montreal, but the good news is they have no more back-to-backs before the Olympic break, so they will be as fresh as possible for this gauntlet.
Tale of the Tape
| Canadiens | Statistics | Wild |
|---|---|---|
| 27-15-7 | Record | 28-13-9 |
| 49.1% (20th) | Expected-goal share | 50.4% (15th) |
| 3.39 (4th) | Goals per game | 3.16 (15th) |
| 3.27 (23rd) | Goals against per game | 2.80 (7th) |
| 23.9% (8th) | PP% | 23.2% (11th) |
| 78.1% (20th) | PK% | 76.6% (27th) |
| 0-2-0 | Head-to-Head Record (24-25) | 2-0-0 |
| Cole Caufield (24) | Most goals | Matt Boldy (27) |
| Lane Hutson (42) | Most assists | Kirill Kaprizov (32) |
| Nick Suzuki (54) | Most points | Kirill Kaprizov (57) |
The Wild should be the tired team in this contest, playing last night in Toronto as part of their tour through Eastern Canada. But even without that being a factor, their defensive play has seriously lapsed over the past month or so. At the Christmas break, Minnesota held the third-best goals-against average at 2.58 per game. Since the league resumed after the holidays, that average has been almost a full goal higher, getting scored on 42 times in 12 games. Last night’s easy 6-3 win over the Maple Leafs broke a streak of four games allowing four or more.
Much of that defensive drop has come with Jesper Wallstedt in net. The rookie netminder was making a strong case to be included in the Calder Trophy conversation with the best save percentage in the NHL among goalies with at least 10 starts at the Christmas pause, with a spectacular .933 mark. In six starts since, his save percentage has been .870, and on January 15 he was pulled from a start for the first time in his career after allowing six goals on 20 shots.
Wallstedt is due to get the start tonight in Montreal, but given his recent play and the fact that Minnesota wasn’t greatly tested last night in Toronto, Wild head coach John Hynes will be tempted to double up the starts for Filip Gustavsson. The veteran has been at least passable with his .898 performance since the holiday pause, and has four of Minnesota’s six wins in that time.
With two points last night, Quinn Hughes is up to 20 with his new team in 18 games. The Wild have also seen Kirill Kaprizov net five assists in the past two games, and suddenly their offence has sprung to life on this road trip with 11 goals. Even if Montreal does play significantly better than it did in the past few outings, this could still be a high-scoring game between teams with offences outperforming their defensive play at the moment. The score will probably be too close for the Bell Centre to break out in a wave is it did throughout the last homestand, but the Habs still have a chance to send the fans home happy if they play up to the standard they’ve shown for most of the season.
