The Montreal Canadiens look for a Christmas gift in Vegas
By Omar L
The Montreal Canadiens are hoping to add another win but with Christmas flair as they take on the Vegas Golden Knights at T-Mobile Arena.
T’was the last game before Christmas, and all through the room were the winning Montreal Canadiens, with more confidence to bloom (I tried).
It’s another afternoon game for the Habs as they look to build off their Thursday night win in Vegas. The team looked tighter and focused, the power play connected for another goal thanks to Shea Weber, and Carey Price earned his 300th victory. And before Montreal breaks for the holidays, they’ll need to do away with the Vegas Golden Knights.
The Habs won the first meeting between the two teams back in November. Nine goals were scored in total, and Tomas Tatar wound up getting the game winner with nearly eight minutes left helping Montreal overcome the two-goal deficit. It was also Max Pacioretty‘s first game against the club he was captain for.
Pacioretty didn’t have much going for Vegas that night, and he won’t get a chance to have a better effort in this game. The 30-year-old was placed on injured reserve this week isn’t available to compete. It’s unfortunate for the Golden Knights given the turn around Pacioretty has had offensively including a run of 17 points in 15 games. But, they’ll have to rely on the rest of the team to take on the Montreal Canadiens.
Vegas has been on a win/loss rollercoaster over the last two weeks. They defeated the Chicago Blackhawks on December 6th but lost their next game to LA by a score of 5-1. They’ve only managed to put two wins together beating both the Dallas Stars and New York Islanders, yet the pattern has lived on.
They’ll definitely want to end it seeing as the pattern should have them losing to the Montreal Canadiens.
Vegas Golden Knights
Forward Lines
Jon Marchessault – William Karlsonn – Alex Tuch
Brandon Pirri – Paul Stastny – Reilly Smith
Oscar Lindberg – Cody Eakin – Ryan Carpenter
William Carrier –Pierre-Edouard Bellemare – Ryan Reaves
Defence Pairs
Shea Theodore – Deryk Engelland
Goaltenders
The Habs are coming off a 2-1 victory over the Arizona Coyotes and need to keep the wins coming with other teams beneath catching up. The team had a day off Friday so news on any lineup changes won’t come until before the game or during the warm-ups.
For now, we can assume the forward lines will stay the same with some kind of rotation occurring on the blueline. Perhaps Brett Kulak draws in pushing one of Jordie Benn or David Schlemko out. I’ll
It also wouldn’t be surprising to see Antti Niemi get the start as Price played in back-to-back games. There could also be reason to play the starter anyway given the amount of time the Montreal Canadiens have off after this game.
Montreal Canadiens
Forward Lines
Tomas Tatar – Phillip Danault – Brendan Gallagher
Jonathan Drouin – Max Domi – Andrew Shaw
Paul Byron – Jesperi Kotkaniemi – Artturi Lehkonen
Kenny Agostino – Michael Chaput – Charles Hudon
Defence Pairs (Guess)
Jordie Benn – Shea Weber
Brett Kulak – Victor Mete
Goaltenders
Antti Niemi
Carey Price
dark. Next. Is the blueline good enough to contend?
Can the Montreal Canadiens channel their Christmas spirit and win another one? Will the power play strike for the third game in a row? Tune in this afternoon to find out. (P.S. Thanks for Nick Suzuki!)