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Pregame: Canadiens vs Lightning |
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Follow me @KarineHains for all updates about the Montreal Canadiens and women's hockey
Tonight, the Habs will be taking on the Tampa Bay Lightning for the fourth and final time this season. The Florida outfit will have the opportunity to sweep the season series with a win tonight. While the Lightning is no longer the powerhouse it used to be, they’ve still won eight of the last 10 meetings between the two sides, including the last three.
Martin St-Louis has already said that Cayden Primeau would be getting the start tonight, his 19th of the season. Fresh off his Molson Cup win for March, Primeau will be taking on the Bolts for the season time of the season. He was on duty for the last game between the two teams which the Lightning won in the shootout 4-3. Primeau made 26 saves on the 29 shots received then.
Cole Caufield leads the Canadiens’ players in points in the season series with three points in as many games. The winger scored a goal on Tuesday against the Panthers and will be hoping to pad up his 21 goals total this season, especially since he had 26 goals in just 46 games last season. Even though he hasn’t been as productive goals-wise, Caufield still has 20 points more than he did in his sophomore campaign. The fact that he’s getting more assists makes him a more complete player and makes him harder to defend.
On Tampa’s side, Nikita Kucherov has got five points in the head-to-head series and leads the NHL pointers with 130 points, three points ahead of the Avalanche’s Nathan MacKinnon and four in front of Connor McDavid. Meanwhile, team captain Steven Stamkos has just 68 points and is playing the last year of his 8-year contract. The veteran is now 34 years old, and it will be interesting to see if he’ll stay in Tampa beyond this year. In his 16-season career, the veteran has played 1075 games during which he’s gathered 1124 points including 547 goals. Stamkos has also won the Rocket Richard trophy twice during his career, the Mark Messier Leadership Award just last season and of course, two Stanley Cups.
The puck drop is set for 7:00 PM and if you’ve had enough Canadiens’ hockey for this season, you could watch the Women’s World Championship instead, Canada is taking on Finland at the same time tonight.
Montreal Canadiens Blogger • 
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