Canadiens: Taking On The New Team For The Second Time

The NHL youngest franchise the Utah Hockey Club will play host to the oldest franchise tonight when the Montreal Canadiens play their first game at Delta Center in Salt Lake City.

It will be the second meeting between the two sides who collided at the end of November in Montreal. Utah had won that game 3-2 in overtime and former Canadiens player Mikhail Sergachev scored the game-winner. On that night, the Habs had only managed 13 shots on goal.

The hosts are not doing great of late with a 2-6-2 record in their last 10 games and they've lost their last tilt in heartbreaking fashion, leading for much of the game before conceding the equalizer early in the third period and the game-winner with less than two minutes to go.

Meanwhile, the Canadiens are doing great and while they lost their last game in the shootout, they are still 7-2-1 in their last 10 matches and going strong. The Habs have a busy week ahead with four games on the calendar and it will be interesting to see how the work is divided up between the two goaltenders.

The team will play again on Thursday in Dallas, then play two home games against the Toronto Maple Leafs and the New York Rangers this weekend. It wouldn't be shocking to see Jakub Dobes get two of the four games, including his first home start. While no starter has been confirmed yet for tonight's game, I wouldn't be surprised to see Samuel Montembeault in net tonight (Dobes on Thursday, Montembeault on Saturday and Dobes again on Sunday).

The two teams have split the decisions evenly in their last 10 meetings with each team grabbing five wins. Utah HC have got a few players who like taking on the Habs, Clayton Keller has got 15 points in 12 games against Montreal while Nick Schmaltz has 13 points in 12 match ups. Olli Maatta also has 14 points against the Canadiens, but he got them across 26 games.

In net, Karel Vejmelka has got a 3-0-1 record against the Habs with a 2.45 goals-against average, with a .904 save percentage while Connor Ingram has a 1-2-0 record with a 3.37 GAA and a .873 SP.

Meanwhile, Brendan Gallagher has 13 points in 17 games against the Coyotes/Utah HC and Patrik Laine has 10 points in 13 meetings against the former franchise. They are the only two players to have reached double digits. Alex Newhook missed yesterday's practice because of the flu and we'll know later today if he'll be available for the game.

In net, Dobes has never taken on the new franchise while Montembeault has lost his only start against the new franchise with a 2.79 GAA and a .897 SP.

Tonight's game is schedule for 9:00 PM ET and the Canadiens will be staying the night in Salt Lake City before travelling to Dallas on Wednesday afternoon, leaving no time for a practice, but as we've seen lately, managing the workload and optimizing rest works very well with this team.

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