{"id":441204,"date":"2026-01-29T16:46:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T16:46:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/441204\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T16:46:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T16:46:08","slug":"colmtl-what-you-need-to-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/441204\/","title":{"rendered":"COL@MTL: What you need to know"},"content":{"rendered":"

WHAT\u2019S HAPPENING AT THE BELL CENTRE<\/p>\n

Lunar New Year Celebration<\/p>\n

The Canadiens will mark the Year of the Horse by celebrating Lunar New Year early at the arena.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a look at what fans can expect inside and outside the Bell Centre:<\/p>\n

Red envelopes with gift cards from team partners\u2014Pizza Pizza, Tim Hortons, Tricolore Sports, and Uber Eats\u2014will be distributed to fans in Canadiens Plaza on a first-come, first-served basis;
\nLion dancers from the Montreal Chan Lion Dance Club will perform outdoors at 5:00 p.m., and entertain the crowd during first intermission;
\nAnthem performances by Montreal-based artist Mulan;
\nMusical performances by guest DJ Ken-j;
\nAn exclusive T-shirt featuring the Canadiens Lunar New Year logo will be available at Tricolore Sports, with 25% of profits benefiting the Chinese Family Service of Greater Montreal;
\nLocal Vietnamese restaurant Le Petit Sao will have a special kiosk in March\u00e9 M2 Montr\u00e9al Loto-Qu\u00e9bec as part of the Restaurant Spotlight powered by Interac;
\nA free fortune cookie will be offered with every meal purchased at concessions in M2 March\u00e9 Montr\u00e9al Loto-Qu\u00e9bec, as well as in Bell Centre restaurants.<\/p>\n

Throwback Thursday<\/p>\n

A special pregame video highlighting the Battle of Quebec will be shown, and retro scoreboard graphics featuring the Nordiques logo will be used throughout the game.<\/p>\n

Fans online can also test their Canadiens-Nordiques knowledge<\/a> for a chance to win a souvenir warmup puck and Habs crewneck.<\/p>\n

TEAM COMPARISONS<\/p>\n

Montreal looked like itself again on Tuesday, delivering a strong effort against a true measuring-stick opponent in the Vegas Golden Knights. Jake Evans\u2019 overtime winner put the exclamation point on a performance that, from the coaching staff\u2019s perspective, checked a lot of the right boxes after a stretch where the Canadiens hadn\u2019t quite been at their best. Thursday, however, presents an entirely different challenge. The undisputed top team in the League rolls into town, raising the bar yet again for Montreal\u2019s final home game before the Olympic break.<\/p>\n

As noted, Colorado has been the NHL\u2019s gold standard this season, even if the shine has dulled slightly of late. The Avalanche-turned-Nordiques for tonight are just 4-4-2 over their last 10 games, a stretch that would qualify as a slump by their lofty standards. Still, recent form only tells part of the story. When you\u2019re facing the League\u2019s top team at both ends of the ice, the margin for error is razor thin. Colorado can flip the switch at any moment, which means a full 60 minutes of vigilance is non-negotiable for the Canadiens on Thursday.<\/p>\n

SEASON SERIES<\/p>\n

Nov. 29 @ COL: 7-2 COL<\/p>\n

Jan. 29 vs. COL:<\/p>\n

PLAYERS TO WATCH FOR<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll stick with Cole Caufield until he gives us reason not to. The Habs sniper enters Thursday\u2019s matchup on a career-high six-game goal streak, fresh off reaching the 30-goal plateau in Tuesday\u2019s win over the Knights.<\/p>\n

On the Colorado side, the choice is obvious: Nathan MacKinnon. The numbers do the talking. Eighty-eight points, an NHL-leading 38 goals, and a plus-46 rating more than earn him top billing in this one.<\/p>\n

BY THE NUMBERS: HABS-NORDIQUES<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s how the Nordiques and Canadiens match up by the numbers:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WHAT\u2019S HAPPENING AT THE BELL CENTRE Lunar New Year Celebration The Canadiens will mark the Year of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":441205,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":["post-441204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=441204"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441204\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/441205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=441204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=441204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=441204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}