Game 54: Montreal Canadiens @ New York Rangers
Start time: 7:00 PM EST / 4:00 PM PST
In the Canadiens region: TSN2 (English), RDS (French)
In the Rangers region: MSG
Streaming: ESPN+, TSN+, RDS
The goal scored with less than three minutes to go to turn a 4-0 score into a 5-0 one on Tuesday night didn’t mean much to the outcome of the game, but it was a big one for Brandon Gignac: his first in the NHL. The Bell Centre crowd always provides loud applause for first goals, but the fans were feeling especially cheery after a great 60-minute effort from the home team and added a bit more energy to make it a truly special memory for the 26-year-old.
The situation isn’t quite the same for Alex Belzile, who will be making his debut with the New York Rangers tonight. He played 31 NHL games on a decimated Habs team last year, scoring six goals, and had 50 total games in his time in the organization. But, like Gignac’s recall, this is a reward for Belzile’s quality play in the AHL — 37 points in 43 games with the Hartford Wolf Pack — and for a player who had to wait until age 28 to make his debut, every game at the NHL level is a big one.
You know that Belzile will be motivated to have a good game versus his former team, one that didn’t offer him the NHL contract he was looking for which ultimately led him to a new destination, and general manager Chris Drury probably had that in mind making this move in time for the Canadiens’ visit.
| Canadiens | Statistics | Rangers |
|---|---|---|
| 22-23-8 | Record | 34-16-3 |
| 44.4% (29th) | Scoring-chances-for % | 51.0% (15th) |
| 2.75 (27th) | Goals per game | 3.23 (12th) |
| 3.45 (27th) | Goals against per game | 2.74 (7th) |
| 19.9% (18th) | PP% | 25.6% (5th) |
| 74.3% (29th) | PK% | 83.7% (5th) |
| 1-0-0 | Head-to-Head Record | 0-0-1 |
Belzile steps into a very different situation than the one he played in during his final years in the Montreal system. The New York Rangers rank fifth in the NHL with 71 points, and are currently on a five-game winning streak, regaining the form that had slipped in the month of January. The team is good in all facets of the game, with enviable special-teams efficiency that will make them hard to beat for the other teams in the Metropolitan Division.
Oddly enough, they haven’t registered a single power-play goal during this current run, and the drought actually goes back seven games, held goalless on their last 17 opportunities to play with an extra man. But they’ve also gotten through 92.9% of opposition power plays without surrendering a goal, so the impact, as the recent record indicates, has been kept to a minimum.
That penalty-killing will be tested by Montreal’s top unit that has been on a roll for weeks now. Even the loss of Sean Monahan couldn’t slow it down, as the team has made the adjustment with Alex Newhook on the ice to set up more chances for Juraj Slafkovský. Not only are the Canadiens a top-10 team on the man advantage during the Rangers’ cold stretch, they also rank at the top of the list in earning power-play chances, with 26 in the past seven games. They’re playing well enough to earn their opportunities, and finally able to punish teams that try to slow them down.
Montreal will need to hope the power-play strategy can break down New York’s offence, because the Rangers’ offensive depth has been highlighted while their special teams have scored zero goals. Artemiy Panarin and Adam Fox have six even-strength points each in the past seven games, while Alexis Lafrenière, Chris Kreider, and Jonny Brodzinski, who will be matching a career high with a 35th game played tonight, have five. New York has seven other players with at least three points in this time. Montreal has five such producers; the five members of the previous top power-play unit, which included Monahan.
The Canadiens have already faced this Stanley Cup contender once this season, welcoming the Rangers to the Bell Centre on January 6 and coming away with a shootout win. It was one of the infamous cases of the Habs blowing a three-goal lead this season. Perhaps we’ll have a chance to find out if the Habs extending one of those to a 5-0 final is evidence of them starting to learn how to play with a multi-goal lead.
