Montreal Canadiens Game Preview: Fishing for Sharks
By Omar L
The Montreal Canadiens are set to start their California road trip Tuesday night hoping history doesn’t repeat itself against the San Jose Sharks.
Is it weird to say that there seems to be a different vibe around the Montreal Canadiens? They’ve looked focused and determined these last couple of days at practice. Brendan Gallagher also has a new haircut so that could be a part of it as well. The team will have two opponents: the San Jose Sharks and history.
Road games in California haven’t gone their way in the past years, in particular at San Jose. Andrew Zadarnowski tweeted out some interesting information on Monday. The Montreal Canadiens have not won a regulation game in San Jose since 1997. Then again, all streaks come to an end at some point, and if the Habs ever wanted to break one, it would be now.
Montreal needs to start putting together some wins. They’ve lost their last four games after winning their season opener against the Buffalo Sabres in a shootout. The, “it’s still early in the year,” excuse is starting to run its course. They can’t afford to continue to fall behind with other teams in the Eastern Conference picking up points.
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There were no changes to the lineup except for the bottom pairing. Joseph Morrow will be making his season debut in place of Jordie Benn. If you’ve been watching some of the goals against, this shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone.
The only cause for concern was that Morrow had his fair share of turnovers in the preseason. However, if there were ever a time for the 24-year-old to find stability in his game, it would be now.
San Jose is coming off a loss as well. Similarly to the Habs, there haven’t been many goals coming their way. This game has the chance of being a one or two goal decider. If that’s the case, team defence is going to be key. Additionally, it would be nice for the Canadiens to continue to produce on the man advantage. Alex Galchenyuk scored the team’s first power play goal of the season against the Toronto Maple Leafs, but they’ll need more.
Claude Julien and the players are throwing all of these cliches around. They have to take it one period at a time, work hard and get the chances, etc. The most important thing is that the Montreal Canadiens get the win.
Can the Montreal Canadiens win and end their losing streak? Let us know your thoughts and predictions down below.