Canadiens: Open Season On Ducks

After putting up a good fight against the league leading Washington Capitals on Saturday night, the Canadiens trained at the Bell Centre on Sunday Morning. Josh Anderson, who provided a solid effort the night before had a day of treatment. Following the team's inability to score on breakaways, Martin St-Louis had his men focus on that yesterday morning.

Meanwhile, tonight's opponents, the Anaheim Ducks arrived in town well in advance as their last game was on Friday night against the Minnesota Wild, a game they dropped 5-1 which left them in 29th place in the league with 23 points. Montreal has the same total, but the Ducks have two games in hand.

On Saturday night, GM Pat Verbeek and center Ryan Strome took in the game from the press gallery, perhaps studying the Canadiens' play. Then on Sunday morning, while the Canadiens practiced in Montreal, the Ducks took over their training facility in Brossard. Leo Carlsson, who has missed some time due to an injury was wearing a regular jersey and Jacob Trouba skated in his first practice with his new team. It remains to be seen if they'll be ready to play tonight.

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Tonight's tilt will be the first meeting between the two sides this season and the only other game is scheduled for Feb. 2 at 4:00 PM in Anaheim. Tonight, Lane Hutson will be looking to break the record he tied on Saturday night by registering a point in a sixth consecutive game. Should he grab another point tonight, he'll set a new record and be the sole holder. Before him, both Glenn Harmon (1943) and Chris Chelios (1984) had recorded a point in sixth consecutive games as rookie blueliners with the Canadiens.

The last time the two sides met in February, both Nick Suzuki and Juraj Slafkovsky picked up three points. Christian Dvorak is the team's best scorer against the Californian outfit with 13 points in 25 games, followed by Brendan Gallagher who has 12 points, but he actually got them in only 13 games. The alternate captain has not found the back of the net in eight games and has yet to record a point in December, perhaps the Ducks are just what he needs.

Alex Killorn is the Ducks' most productive scorer against the Habs, he has 18 points in 40 games. Centre Ryan Strome comes in second with 16 points in 22 games while defensemen Cam Fowler comes in third place with 14 points in 21 games, but Troy Terry is also a point-per-game player against Montreal with eight points in eight games.

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Il will also be interesting to see, if Trouba plays, if he and Anderson will let bygones be bygones now that the Canadiens' power forward gave him a retaliatory correction in his second to last game with the New York Rangers for his hit on Justin Barron earlier this season.

Tonight will be the Canadiens' fourth game in seven days and Samuel Montembeault was in net for the first three. Will St-Louis give his starter yet another start or will Cayden Primeau get another chance at redemption? In 10 games so far this season, the backup has a 4.45 goals-against average (making him dead last amongst goaltenders who have played at least nine games) and a .844 save percentage (which is also the worst in the league amongst netminders who have played 9 games or more). Against the Ducks, Montembeault has got a 1-4-0 record with a 3.09 GAA and a .891 SP. As for Primeau, he's only faced them twice and has a 1-0-0 record, 2.26 GAA and a .864 GAA. The backup was actually in net for the last meeting when the Canadiens blanked the Ducks, could this come into the equation?

Meanwhile John Gibson was on duty for the Ducks' last game on Friday and since he's acing as backup these days, chances are Lukas Dostal will be manning the net for the visitors. Still, the backup has got a great record against Montreal, he's 7-2-1 with a 2.29 GAA and a .927 SP. As for Dostal, he's 1-1-0, with a 3.50 GAA and a .889 SP.

This duel will be the 42nd against the two teams and the Canadiens have a 19-18-2-2 record. Each team has won five of the last 10 games but the Habs claimed the last two.

This is a Monday night showdown and it will be shown on Amazon Prime, meaning it will start at 7:30 PM.

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