SEASON SERIES\u00a0AND\u00a0STANDINGS\u00a0<\/p>\n
This is the first of three matchups between the Islanders and Canadiens this season.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Isles\u00a0went\u00a03-0-1 against the Canadiens\u00a0in their last four matchups dating back to the 2023-24 season, with each game going beyond regulation.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Islanders\u00a0sit\u00a0third\u00a0in the Metropolitan Division with 69\u00a0points,\u00a0one point shy of the second place Pittsburgh Penguins (70 points),\u00a0though the Pens have two games in-hand.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Montreal is tied with the Detroit Red Wings (72 points) but claim second place in the division with one fewer game played (57).\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
CANADIENS\u00a0NOTES\u00a0<\/p>\n
The\u00a0Canadiens\u00a0are\u00a0entering Thursday\u2019s contest off a 5-1 win over the Winnipeg Jets in their last call to action on Feb. 4.\u00a0Montreal was hot heading into the Olympic break as winners in\u00a0four of their last five games.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Montreal\u2019s Nick\u00a0Suzuki\u00a0(Canada), Juraj\u00a0Slavkovsky\u00a0(Slovakia) and Oliver Kapanen (Finland) all\u00a0represented\u00a0their home\u00a0nations at The Winter Olympics in Milan, Italy.\u00a0Suzuki earned two points (2G) and a silver medal in six games with Team Canada.\u00a0Slavkovsky\u00a0exploded for eight points (4G, 4A) but fell just short of a medal as Kapanen\u00a0and Finland knocked off Slovakia 6-1 in the bronze medal game.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Suzuki leads the Canadiens and ranks 12th\u00a0in the NHL with 65 points (18G, 47A) this season.\u00a0He notched at least\u00a0one point\u00a0in his last nine games against the Islanders.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Canadiens\u00a0have\u00a0a pair of\u00a0rookie\u00a0phenoms in Ivan Demidov and Kapanen. Demidov leads all\u00a0rookie\u00a0skaters with 46 points (12G, 34A) this\u00a0season but\u00a0has just three points (1G, 2A) in his last seven contests. Kapanen\u00a0isn\u2019t\u00a0far behind with 31 points\u00a0(18G, 13A),\u00a0but with a tally against the Jets on Feb. 4, he tied Anaheim\u2019s Beckett\u00a0Sennecke\u00a0for the most goals (18) among rookie skaters.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lane Hutson also scored in Montreal\u2019s 5-1 victory the last time out. Hutson, who is the reigning Calder Trophy winner, was the fourth Canadiens defenseman to score 10 goals in a season\u00a0before turning 22. He celebrated his birthday on Valentine\u2019s Day. The 22-year-old leads Montreal defensemen\u00a0and ranks third\u00a0at\u00a0his position in the NHL\u00a0with 58 points (10G, 48A) this season.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Patrick Laine (upper-body, IR) was practicing in a non-contact jersey on\u00a0Saturday.\u00a0He\u00a0hasn\u2019t\u00a0suited up for the Canadiens since Oct. 16, 2025. He has one\u00a0point\u00a0(1A) in five\u00a0games,\u00a0and Montreal is 4-1-0 when he is in the lineup this season.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The\u00a0Canadiens’\u00a0power-play (23.9%) ranks seventh in the NHL, and they have converted at least once in three of their last four games.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
On the\u00a0flip side, Montreal\u2019s penalty kill (76.9%) ranks 22nd\u00a0in the league this\u00a0season and allowed a power-play goal in each of their last three games.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SEASON SERIES\u00a0AND\u00a0STANDINGS\u00a0 This is the first of three matchups between the Islanders and Canadiens this season.\u00a0 The Isles\u00a0went\u00a03-0-1…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":500248,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194292],"tags":[49,48,2338],"class_list":["post-500247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-montreal","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-montreal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500247","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=500247"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500247\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/500248"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=500247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=500247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=500247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}