Game 61: Montreal Canadiens @ Anaheim Ducks

Start time: **9:00 PM EST / 6:00 PM PST**
In the Canadiens region: TSN2 (English), RDS (French)
In the Ducks region: K-COP13, Victory+
Streaming: ESPN+, RDS, TSN+

The Montreal Canadiens weren’t the only young team to have a surprising start to the season and sit atop their division after the opening month. Thanks to a seven-game winning streak from October 28 to November 9, the Anaheim Ducks held the first seed in the Pacific Division, and went into the Christmas break in a three-way tie with the Vegas Golden Knights and Edmonton Oilers for that placement.

Things went off the rails when the players reconvened for the second half of the season after the holidays. They lost four games in a row before embarking a road trip to play several Eastern Conference teams, and proceeded to get swept in those four games as well. During that losing streak, they were scored on at least five times on seven occasions.

In other divisions, that streak probably would have seriously harmed their hopes of making the playoffs, but even after that final loss in Buffalo on January 10 they were three points out of a wild-card spot, and seven back of the Golden Knights for the top seed.

Since that losing streak, the Ducks have been a different team. They’ve only lost three times in their last 16 games, with winning streaks of seven and five games in that time. Their most recent match was on Wednesday night versus a New York Islanders team that has also gone on a charge over its last 10 games or so, and that was a 5-1 decision in Anaheim’s favour.

Tale of the Tape

Canadiens
Statistics
Ducks

33-18-9
Record
34-24-3

48.6% (23rd)
Expected-goal share
50.2% (15th)

3.52 (3rd)
Goals per game
3.25 (13th)

3.27 (24th)
Goals against per game
3.48 (30th)

24.7% (7th)
PP%
18.2% (23rd)

76.5% (27th)
PK%
77.3% (23rd)

1-1-0
Head-to-Head Record (24-25)
1-0-1

Cole Caufield (35)
Most goals
Cutter Gauthier (31)

Nick Suzuki (50)
Most assists
Jackson LaCombe (35)

Nick Suzuki (69)
Most points
Cutter Gauthier (55)

If the Canadiens were hoping for a less dangerous opponent after a 7-5 loss in San Jose on Tuesday, they won’t find that tonight. Like the Sharks, the Ducks are a young team that skews heavily toward the offensive side of the game. Anaheim averages 3.25 goals per game, ranking 13th in the NHL. Cutter Gauthier leads with 55 points, and has five goals in his last three games and 11 in the 15 games since the loss in Buffalo. Rookie Beckett Sennecke is scoring a point per game in this span, and is up to 51 points on the campaign, with 20 of those being goals.

The Habs still boast the better offensive numbers. Even during this run the Ducks are on dating back to January 10, Montreal has scored the most goals in the NHL, averaging 4.13 per night. That number is only rising with the return of Alex Newhook, who scored two goals to initially pull the Canadiens into a tie with the Sharks and now has four points in the three games he’s played coming out of the Olympic break. If there were any fears about him being hesitant in his play after recovering from a broken ankle, he’s answered them, and has already earned himself a promotion back to the second line with Oliver Kapanen and Ivan Demidov that worked well before he sustained his injury.

That move is possible because Juraj Slafkovský has been placed next to Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield, loading up the line with Montreal’s three best players. Caufield and Suzuki had a rare rough game in San Jose, finishing with -3 goal differentials in their matchup versus Macklin Celebrini, and Martin St-Louis is hoping to see more of the hard-working offensive play that line has been known for when these three have been together.

It’s a move more about defence than offence, the one area that continues to stand in the way of the Canadiens being comfortably in a playoff position and currently being three points up in the wild-card race. The offensive improvements just from the arrivals of Demidov and Noah Dobson are clear enough from last year, and yet there’s still the possibility that it once again comes down to a race between Montreal and Columbus for the final spot.

The perception of the situation would change a lot with a win tonight. Right now what looks like a drop in the standings is largely the fact that the Habs have only played once in the past five days. There’s a more winnable game versus the struggling Los Angeles Kings waiting on Sunday, so the Habs have a chance in front of them to claim four points in just over 24 hours and feel better about their next two-day break. The commitment on defence will need to be a lot stronger than it was versus Celebrini, but there’s no team in the NHL the Canadiens shouldn’t be able to outscore.