TEAM COMPARISONS<\/p>\n
The Canadiens enter Sunday\u2019s matchup two points back of Buffalo and level with Tampa Bay for second in the Atlantic Division, though the Lightning hold the regulation-wins tiebreaker. With just two games remaining, Montreal\u2019s path to home ice likely requires a perfect finish. The Habs are locked into a top-three divisional spot and are all but certain to open the playoffs against either Buffalo or Tampa Bay.<\/p>\n
For the Islanders, the stakes couldn\u2019t be higher. Clinging to slim postseason hopes, New York faces a do-or-die scenario. Their only path to the playoffs is through a third-place finish in the Metropolitan Division, where they trail Philadelphia by three points, meaning a regulation loss on Sunday would mathematically eliminate them from the postseason race.<\/p>\n
SEASON SERIES<\/p>\n
Feb. 26 vs. NYI: 4-3 NYI (OT)<\/p>\n
Mar. 21 vs. NYI: 7-3 MTL<\/p>\n
April 12 @ NYI:<\/p>\n
PLAYERS TO WATCH FOR<\/p>\n
Nick Suzuki is one point away from 100. Need we say more?<\/p>\n
Also worth noting, Cole Caufield (51) trails Nathan MacKinnon (52) by a single goal in the Rocket Richard race.<\/p>\n
Matthew Schaefer continues a sensational rookie campaign, tying the record for goals (23) by a first-year defenseman while becoming the youngest blueliner in history to reach 50 points. The 18-year-old has three goals in two games against Montreal this season.<\/p>\n
BY THE NUMBERS: HABS-ISLES<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s how the Canadiens and Islanders match up by the numbers:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TEAM COMPARISONS The Canadiens enter Sunday\u2019s matchup two points back of Buffalo and level with Tampa Bay for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":599220,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194292],"tags":[49,48,2338],"class_list":["post-599219","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\/599219","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=599219"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599219\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/599220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=599219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=599219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=599219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}