The Canadiens handily beat their main rival in last night’s contest. Lars Eller capped off two nice passing plays set up by Alex Galchenyuk and Alex Semin. The convincing win kept the Canadiens unbeaten to start the season.
The Habs will look to get off to a 3-0 start when they face the Ottawa Senators in tonight’s contest.
Ottawa is also 2-0 to start the year, and is coming in off a win versus a divisional rival of their own, as they survived the collapse of a three-goal lead to beat the Toronto Maple Leafs in a shootout.
That initial three-goal lead was achieved on consecutive power play chances for the Senators granted late in the first and early in the second periods. The Senators now sit second in the league in the early going with a power play efficiency of 50%. A one-for-six showing in last night’s game versus the Bruins has the Canadiens in the bottom third of the standings in that category.
The special teams will pose a challenge for Mike Condon, who will be making his first NHL start tonight. The defence will need to be solid to give Condon the chance at a win.
How to Watch
Start time: 7:00 PM ET
In Canada (English): Sportsnet One
In Canadiens region (French): RDS
In the US: NHL Network
Elsewhere: NHL GameCenter, NHL Center Ice
Tale of the Tape
| Canadiens | Statistic | Senators |
| 2-0-0 | Record | 2-0-0 |
| 2-0-0 | L10 Record | 2-0-0 |
| 53.5 | 5v5 Corsi % | 44.6 |
| 7 | Goals For | 7 |
| 3 | Goals Against | 5 |
| 4.0 (4:1) | 5v5 Goal Ratio | 1.0 (3:3) |
| 14.3% | PP% | 50.0% |
| 71.4% | PK% | 71.4% |
Know Your Enemy
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More from our team sites
The Ottawa Senators have a similar makeup to the Canadiens, with a stable of young, skilled talent surrounded by veterans. The team made very few off-season moves, other than re-signing some of those players, opting to see what an extra year of development can do for the club.
Erik Karlsson leads the team from the back-end, and matched PK Subban’s performance versus the Leafs in the Habs season opener with three assists versus the team’s rival in the Battle of Ontario last night. Kyle Turris and Mark Stone are tied for fifth (along with Galchenyuk) in the league’s point standings with four points apiece.
Last Time Out
The Canadiens faced the Senators twice in the pre-season, losing on both occasions by a final score of 10-6, allowing five goals in each game.
Their last meaningful contest was Game Six of the Conference Quarter-finals in late April. The Canadiens had seen their 3-0 series lead reduced to 3-2 leading up to the game, and won the series with 2-0 shutout despite being significantly outplayed, the final shots 43-20 in Ottawa’s favour. The Senators finished the game with a team Corsi-for percentage above 60%, with 11 players performing better than even that impressive number.
