Canadiens: Montreal Takes on Colorado

karine hains

Sat, Jan 4, 2025, 7:00 a.m.·2 min read

After taking on the Chicago Blackhawks last night, the Montreal Canadiens flew to Denver to take on the Colorado Avalanche tonight. This will be the first match between the two sides this season and the Habs will hope to sign a third consecutive win against the former Nordiques.

Two former Canadiens will be lining up against Montreal tonight as Artturi Lehkonen and Jonathan Drouin both play for the Avs. The former recorded his first career hat-trick last week in Colorado's big win over the Utah Hockey Club and the latter is finally back from injury after missing over a month. In both games since his return, Drouin has picked up a pair of points.

The Habs have only won three of the last 10 games against the Avalanche and tonight won't be an easy task. Since Samuel Montembeault was in net last night, Jakub Dobes should be making his second start tonight. It will be a tall order since the Colorado outfit has won his last six games.

Still, in the last duel between the two teams in March 2024, the Canadiens signed a 2-1 win in which Juraj Slafkovsky established a franchise record for the most points by a teenager in a single season with 40.

While Dobes should be in net for Montreal, expect the Avalanche's number one goaltender to be in the crease at the other end of the ice since backup Scott Wedgewood was in net for Colorado's last game (a 6-5 win over the Buffalo Sabres) and had to leave because of an injury. Mackenzie Blackwood has taken on the Habs five times and has a 4-0-0 record with a 2.54 goals-against average and a .928 save percentage.

Up front, the Canadiens players have not been very productive against Colorado, aside from Patrik Laine who has 18 points in 19 career games against tonight's hosts. Captain Nick Suzuki has seven points in as many games and Brendan Gallagher completes the top-three with eight points in 14 games.

On the other side, Nathan MacKinnon leads the way with 16 points in 17 games against Montreal, followed by Mikko Rantanen who has 13 points in as many games and all-star defenseman Cale Makar who has nine points in seven games.

The game is set for 7:00 PM and Martin St-Louis will be hoping his men can perform as well as they did in the second part of their last back-to-back when they beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 5-2 after blanking the Florida Panthers 4-0 the day before.

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