Canadiens: Taking On The Old Enemy

Slowly but surely, the Montreal Canadiens have turned into one of the hottest teams in the league. Over the course of their last 20 games, they've kept a 14-5-1 record and slayed a lot of monsters all while maintaining a .725 points percentage, the highest after the Edmonton Oilers (.786) and the Vegas Golden Knights (.737).

Tonight, the Toronto Maple Leafs (6-4 in their last 10 games) will be at the Bell Centre to take on the Habs for the third out of four times this season. The two teams battled it out to open the season, a game which the Canadiens won 1-0 thanks to a brilliant 48-save performance by Samuel Montembeault and a Cole Caufield goal.

Related: Hutson Is Chasing History

Round two took place in Toronto in early November where the Leafs claimed a 4-1 win lead by Mitch Marner and William Nylander while only Brendan Gallagher found the back of the net for Montreal.

Lane Hutson comes into tonight's game riding a six-game point streak and can tie up his own franchise record for the longest point-streak by a rookie defenseman with seven. With 11 goals and 12 assists for 23 points in 45 duels with the Leafs, Gallagher is the Canadiens' most productive player against Toronto. He's closely followed by captain Nick Suzuki who has 21 points in 26 games, Mike Matheson and Josh Anderson both have 16 career points against the visitors while Patrik Laine has 11 in 10 games facing draft rival Auston Matthews.

The Leafs' most productive player against Montreal is John Tavares with 51 points in 58 games, but he won't give the Habs an headache this time as he's currently on injured reserve. They will need to keep a close eye on Mitch Marner though as the pending UFA has 36 points in as many games in the duels with the Canadiens, while captain Austin Matthews has 45 points in 35 games and Nylander has 30 points in 34 games.

In net, Joseph Woll has a 2-0-0 record against the Habs with a 1.00 goals-against average and a .961 save percentage while Anthony Stolarz is 3-2-0 with a 2.78 GAA and a .910 SP, but he hasn't played since being hurt on December 12. Dennis Hildeby who has been serving as backup since the injury has not taken on the Canadiens yet.

Related: Canadiens: Mission Accomplished

For the Canadiens, Montembeault has played nine games against Toronto and he has a 3-5-0 record, with a 3.57 GAA and a .902 SP while Jakub Dobes has never taken on the Leafs. The team was traveling yesterday so there's no indication yet of who will be manning the net tonight, but I expect to see Montembeault tonight and Dobes against the New York Rangers on Sunday. Starting the backup two games in a row would send a weird message and Montembeault's stats are better against the Leafs than the Rangers.

Tonight's game will be the 770th between the two sides and the Canadiens have a 367-302-88-13 record, but the Leafs have won seven of the last 10 duels. Puck drop is set for 7:00 PM.

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