The Montreal Canadiens are quickly moving away from their loss in Colorado to a new game in Arizona in the second half of a back-to-back.
Last night’s game was frustrating. The Montreal Canadiens got all the shots, but no goals to claim for their own. That’s been a trend this season. The Sportsnet Stats Twitter account tweeted after the game that it was the 20th time the Habs scored one goal or less.
Because of that, and of course other things, the team only has 144 goals to their name which is third last in the league. The Habs’ opponent tonight in the Arizona Coyotes are tied for last with 137. On the surface, this looks to be game with not much going for it, but ironically enough, this game could be one of the more offensive performances from either team.
You can equate it to simple math. A negative times a negative is a positive. Both the Habs and Coyotes don’t score enough so it’s only fitting that we see the goals come in this game. Obviously, that’s not clear evidence of what will happen, but it may have some merit. The last time the two teams played turned into a bit of a gong show.
The Habs got a two-goal lead, and then the Coyotes tied it up. That kept on going until overtime where unfortunately the win went to Arizona. Claude Julien and Rick Tocchet will probably move away from that playing style, but sometimes it can’t be helped.
If anyone on Montreal has a chance of sparking the arena up, it will be Alex Galchenyuk. The 24-year-old had one of his best games in Colorado last night but wasn’t awarded for his efforts despite getting five shots across. It wasn’t just the chances created for himself, but his work away from the puck gave others an opportunity as well.
What wasn’t working for the Habs was Julien’s swap of Artturi Lehkonen and Charles Hudon. With Lehkonen’s latest offensive surge, having with Max Pacioretty and Paul Byron may have been a decent idea to get them going as well. The Habs captain hasn’t scored in 7 games while Byron hasn’t registered a point in the same amount of time.
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Perhaps Julien decides to put things back to where they were before and maybe that was just one game, but that change didn’t look good.
Carey Price will most likely get the start after Antti Niemi had a solid game for the Habs. Price has been doing the same thing for his team, save for a few bumps, but who’s in net doesn’t matter if the team doesn’t score.
The Coyotes, on the other hand, have won their last two games including a 6-1 decimation of the Chicago Blackhawks. Different players were responsible for the goals that night including Max Domi and rookie Clayton Keller. However, Alex Goligoski has scored in back-to-back games so he’s another player to look out for as well.
So will there be a lot of goals going tonight? Possibly. Both teams have players with the ability to score but it’ll come down to who plays the right way.
What are your predictions for the game? Will it be a game full of goals? Let us know in the comments below.