Game 43: Montreal Canadiens vs. Colorado Avalanche
Start time: 7:00 PM EST / 4:00 PM PST
In Canada: Sportsnet (English)
In the Canadiens region: RDS (French)
In the Avalanche region: Altitude
Streaming: ESPN+, RDS, Sportsnet
After how loose the Montreal Canadiens’ defence played in the games leading up to their match versus the surging Edmonton Oilers, the Habs needed to solve their issues in a hurry to avoid a blowout. The response from Martin St-Louis was new defence pairings for the game, a necessary shakeup to the formation.
Mike Matheson played 27 minutes versus Edmonton, paired with Kaiden Guhle and tasked with shutting down Connor McDavid. Playing in their own zone hasn’t been easy for the two defencemen in recent weeks, but they combined for an excellent effort on Saturday, allowing zero goals against in their minutes during regulation and also registering five of Montreal’s 24 shots.
It was also a great night for the team’s top-nine centres. St-Louis doubled up at times with both Nick Suzuki and Sean Monahan — necessary with linesmen very serious about their puck-drop procedures — but also gave Jake Evans the critical role of facing Leon Draisaitl’s line in 18 minutes of action. The shot counter may have listed 41 in the Oilers’ favour at the end of the night, but Montreal did well enough to prevent the creative passing plays that burn most teams, making life relatively easy on starter Samuel Montembeault.
It wasn’t a perfect performance, as that focus on defence came at the expense of offence so the Habs only managed one goal of their own. But it was an important correction of the issues that had plagued the team for a week, and a critical developmental experience for the young defencemen.
Now they have to do it all over again.
| Canadiens | Statistics | Avalanche |
|---|---|---|
| 17-18-7 | Record | 28-12-3 |
| 45.0% (29th) | Scoring-chances-for % | 54.5% (6th) |
| 2.67 (28th) | Goals per game | 3.67 (2nd) |
| 3.36 (23rd) | Goals against per game | 3.07 (16th) |
| 17.9% (22nd) | PP% | 25.0% (8th) |
| 73.2% (28th) | PK% | 83.0% (9th) |
| 0-1-1 | Head-to-Head Record (22-23) | 2-0-0 |
From trying to prevent a team from hitting 10 consecutive wins, the Canadiens now host a Colorado Avalanche club that is 9-1-1 in its past 11 games. Colorado is an even more dangerous offensive team than the Oilers, scoring at least four goals eight times in this recent stretch,
Nathan MacKinnon is leading the way with a Hart Trophy-worthy season, pacing the team in both goals and assists. Then come the familiar names of Cale Makar and Mikko Rantanen in the scoring order, along with the underrated Valeri Nichushkin, who may be recovered from the illness that held him out of Saturday’s game in Toronto.
There is another player climbing the team’s scoring list, and that is Jonathan Drouin. It was a slow start for the former Canadiens forward after finally joining Junior teammate MacKinnon in Colorado after years of trade rumours, with only eight points in his first 26 games despite significant time with the top players on the team. But something clicked for Drouin in mid-December. He went on a five-game points streak on December 13, and since that date has 16 points. He will need 30 points in the second half of the season to beat the 53 he posted in his second year in Montreal, and he will be one of the players the coaching staff needs to gameplan around in this final game of the homestand.
