The Montreal Canadiens will try to take down the hot Minnesota Wild as the two teams will battle it out at the Bell Centre Thursday evening. The Canadiens have played some of their best hockey of the season over the past two games, winning by a combined score of 7-2 and outshooting their opponents by a collective of 59-33, not allowing more than eight shots in a period. For as well as the Canadiens have been playing though, they are facing a formidable challenge as the Wild are winners of eight consecutive games and have climbed up to second place in the Central division with 42 points, just six back of the NHL leading Chicago Blackhawks. It should be noted though that the Wild have four games in hand over the Blackhawks.
Despite all of Montreal’s injuries woes, they have managed to stay the course and continue to lead the Atlantic with 46 points, five up on the Ottawa Senators. In the seven games played without Alex Galchenyuk, the Canadiens have managed to pick up 10 of a possible 14 points. An impressive feat considering that during that time they have also lost David Desharnais, Greg Pateryn, Andrew Shaw and Andrei Markov to injury as well. Not to mention the less than expected offensive contributions from Tomas Plekanec and Brendan Gallagher this season. It is a stark contrast to December of 2016 when the Canadiens struggled mightily to score and win games without the injured Carey Price and Gallagher. While the Canadiens depth has been questioned time and time again, the players have all rallied and are stepping up into whatever role is needed from them. For the most part, they are sticking to the coach’s system and it is working. Perhaps the biggest difference is that the players actually trust each other this season. That they know their linemates will do what they are supposed to do. That there are no passengers on the bus.
Carey Price will get the start in net against the Wild while Devan Dubnyk is expected to get the nod for the Wild. That would be quite the goaltender’s duel as the two are the leading Vezina trophy candidates this season. At this point Dubnyk has the edge in stats a 1.55 GAA and .948 save percentage but has 13 wins while Price has 18 wins and a 1.87 GAA and a .936 save percentage. The bigger question that is on everyone’s mind is if Al Montoya will start yet another Friday night in Columbus considering the disaster that happened last time...
Andrei Markov will not play against the Wild and so the lines will remain the same from Tuesday’s win against the Ducks. Alexei Emelin is not at practice on Thursday morning as his wife is about to give birth. Without him, the Canadiens only have five defencemen unless they are able to quickly call somebody up who can make it in time. They do not even have an extra forward as Sven Andrighetto was not on the ice this morning either.
Alexei Emelin missing morning skate. Is with his wife who is about to give birth to their third child. #TSN690
— Amanda Stein (@amandacstein) December 22, 2016
Pacioretty - Danault - Radulov Byron - Mitchell - Gallagher Lehkonen - Plekanec - Flynn Carr - McCarron - Terry
Emelin - Weber Beaulieu - Petry Barberio - Redmond
Eric Staal leads the Wild with 25 points in 31 games and is enjoying quite the comeback season for him after what he had gone through with the Carolina Hurricanes and New York Rangers. On the backend, Ryan Suter is as steady as always with 18 points on the season.
Five questions for tonight's game:
1) Will it in fact be a goaltenders duel tonight or will it be a surprising high scoring game? I certainly expect the shot count to be lower.
2) Can Jeff Petry continue his hot ways and record at least a point for the fourth consecutive game?
3) Who will score first to end their drought, Shea Weber or Brendan Gallagher?
4) Which special teams unit will be stronger tonight for the Canadiens, the powerplay or the penalty kill?
5) What will be the final score?
Cheers and follow along! Follow @Jenbcutler