Game 17: Montreal Canadiens vs. Vegas Golden Knights
How to watch
Start time: 7:00 PM EST / 4:00 PM PST
In the Canadiens region: TSN2 (English), RDS (French)
In the Golden Knights region: Scripps Sports
Streaming: ESPN+, TSN+, RDS
The Canadiens played one of their most complete games of the season when they travelled to Las Vegas to play the Golden Knights back on October 30, but seemingly content with that effort, the string of regulation losses that followed ended up having a bigger impact on their season. The Habs dropped from the impressive 5-2-2 record they held after that contest to now sit at .500 on the season.
However, with that string of rough performances behind them, the Canadiens have begun to find the consistency many thought they would begin to find with the point in Vegas. Montreal’s most recent results were an overtime win over the Detroit Red Wings, another versus an even stronger Boston Bruins team, a loss the next night when they had nothing left in the tank versus the Vancouver Canucks, and most recently a game against the Calgary Flames that they controlled throughout but simply couldn’t solve Jacob Markstrom. The record may not be what the players would like to see, and the Habs still only have two regulation wins this year, but the game-by-game play has been much better, and less reliant on great goaltending than it was in the opening weeks.
If there is one criticism of Montreal’s effort in the game versus the Flames, it was the team’s lack of finish. Pinpointed as the area in need of the most attention, the team spent its practice on Wednesday doing just that, with the most snakebitten forwards — Juraj Slafkovský, Josh Anderson, and, yes, even Cole Caufield who is converting at about half the rate of his career average — devoting a large portion of their time to shooting drills. The hope is that the wingers will be able to get their attacks past the armour of the Golden Knights when they hit the ice.
| Canadiens | Statistics | Golden Knights |
|---|---|---|
| 7-7-1 | Record | 12-3-1 |
| 48.7% (19th) | Scoring-chances-for % | 51.3% (12th) |
| 2.75 (26th) | Goals per game | 3.44 (9th) |
| 3.31 (20th) | Goals against per game | 2.19 (3rd) |
| 21.5% (14th) | PP% | 21.6% (13th) |
| 77.3% (19th) | PK% | 86.0% (7th) |
| 0-0-1 | Head-to-Head Record | 1-0-0 |
While the Canadiens worked through some confidence issues over the two weeks since the first meeting with Las Vegas, the Golden Knights are going through some of their own. After a couple more wins following the Habs game, they’ve lost three of their last four, their first regulation losses of the season, with the one win being a virtually automatic one over the lowly San Jose Sharks. Those three losses were also the only games this season that they’ve failed to score three goals, netting two versus Los Angeles, one versus the Anaheim Ducks, and then getting shut out on Tuesday by Charlie Lindgren and the Washington Capitals.
The feeling is therefore completely different from the first game of the season series, with both clubs more anxious about their offensive games. Scoring by committee has always been a feature of the expansion team originally made up of middle-six forwards, and that’s no different this season with 13 players having at least two goals (compared to Montreal’s eight), so it’s hard to imagine this offensive slump lasting for long.
The Canadiens seem to be facing a lot of teams recently that only allow a couple of goals per game on average, and Las Vegas has one of the top penalty kills to boot. Montreal was able to get 39 shots on target in the first meeting, when Caufield and Anderson co-led the team with five apiece. If the sights were adjusted during the practice with a Shooter Tutor yesterday, they may be able to get another point or two off the Western Conference leader.
