Game 34: Montreal Canadiens @ Carolina Hurricanes
Start time: 7:00 PM EST / 4:00 PM PST
In the Canadiens region: TSN2 (English), RDS (French)
In the Hurricanes region: Bally Sports South
Streaming: ESPN+, RDS, TSN
After a long five-day break, the Montreal Canadiens return to action in Raleigh, North Carolina. It’s the start of four road games in six days that will take from Carolina, through visits with the two Floridian teams, and finally to Dallas before a return home on January 4.
It’s this road trip that the Canadiens often find difficult, struggling in cities that have housed quality teams in recent years. Those teams are still tough opponents, all either currently in a playoff spot or tied with a team in points for one, so that part won’t be any different this year. The difference this season is that the Canadiens carry some momentum into the second leg of this stretch away from home around the holidays, having secured a 2-0-1 record through the first three contests versus Central Division clubs. That’s as many wins as they had in these trips in the last two seasons combined.
| Canadiens | Statistics | Hurricanes |
|---|---|---|
| 15-13-5 | Record | 17-13-4 |
| 46.5% (27th) | Scoring-chances-for % | 57.0% (1st) |
| 2.79 (27th) | Goals per game | 3.24 (14th) |
| 3.30 (20th) | Goals against per game | 3.18 (17th) |
| 17.7% (24th) | PP% | 24.4% (8th) |
| 73.0% (28th) | PK% | 82.7% (9th) |
| 0-2-1 | Head-to-Head Record (22-23) | 3-0-0 |
It’s largely been the play of one line earning those points for Montreal. Juraj Slafkovský, Nick Suzuki, and Cole Caufield have learned how to play off of each other’s skill sets, and have become a very strong cycling trio with the talent to make those possessions count. Those three have a combined 12 points from those three games, with another eight from the top defence pairing of Mike Matheson and David Savard. Other than Jake Evans with two, no other player on the roster has more than one point in that time.
The team will obviously need more players getting on the scoresheet if they want to keep these good results coming, and a match against the Hurricanes may not be a bad one to do that in. Carolina’s offensive output has been decent with the likes of Sebastian Aho (35 points), Seth Jarvis (26) and Martin Necas (25) leading the 14th-ranked offensive team by goals per game, but they’ve allowed just about as many goals; the same total of 112 the Canadiens have allowed through some early goalie struggles and some issues on the defensive side.
There’s no better team in the league in terms of scoring-chance share and only two with higher expected-goals-for percentages, and yet the actual totals of goals for and against are almost identical. A significant reason for that is the team’s goaltenders’ ability to keep the puck out of the net; the third-lowest team save percentage at five-on-five. The organization’s decision to place Antti Raanta on waivers raised some eyebrows a few weeks ago, perhaps a move made more out of frustration than a sound business decision. It worked out in the end as Raanta cleared, but it really put the club’s strained goalie situation in the spotlight.
Because of those issues, the Hurricanes have been rumoured to have interest in Montreal’s goaltending options, which has become more specific to mean Jake Allen in the past few weeks. Samuel Montembeault is now locked in as the number one while Cayden Primeau is doing enough to show he can at least hold a backup role, leaving Allen’s greatest value to the team as a trade piece that can be used to address some other areas.
Tonight the net will belong to Primeau, whether that’s because Martin St-Louis wants to use him in the game that isn’t versus a divisional opponent, or that there are ongoing discussions around Allen now that the roster freeze has lifted and the team is holding him out. We won’t really know the answer to that question until we see what the decisions are for the back-to-back in the state of Florida to wrap up the calendar year.
Primeau puts his perfect road record on the line versus a Carolina team capable of generating a large number of scoring chances. Based on the Habs’ practice yesterday, it seems his former Northeastern teammate, Jordan Harris, will be coming back into the lineup, and keeping the Huskies theme going on a reunited pairing with Jayden Struble. That would mean a change is set to be made on defence, and it was Johnny Kovacevic skating on a fourth pair with Gustav Lindström on Wednesday. The aim is to provide as much defensive help to slow down the Hurricanes, and hope the top line can generate enough offence to bank a third win on this road stretch at PNC Arena.
