Montreal Canadiens vs Minnesota Wild Game Time, Preview, TV, Live Stream
The Montreal Canadiens will be looking to fix a 1-2-0 home record when they host the struggling Minnesota Wild tonight at the Bell Centre. Here is everything you need to know about tonight’s contest.
The Montreal Canadiens began the season trying to earn the moniker comeback Canadiens. On opening night, they fell behind 2-0 deficit to the Carolina Hurricanes. Two nights later the Habs trailed 4-1 to the Toronto Maple Leafs. The Habs fell behind the Buffalo Sabres 4-2 in the third period in their third game of the season.
Somehow, they came out of that opening week with a record of 1-0-2, coming back in all three games to tie it in the third period. Every one of those games went to overtime and the Habs lost a shootout, won a shootout and lost in overtime. It looked like they were going to lose all three games, so to scratch and claw to find four points out of those three games was impressive, especially considering they were all on the road.
Since then, they have been up and down as well. They laid an egg in their home opener against the Detroit Red Wings, losing 4-2. They bounced back with a big win over the St. Louis Blues, blowing a 3-3 game wide open in the third period by scoring three times and doubling the defending Stanley Cup champions.
In their most recent game, the Canadiens played well against the Tampa Bay Lightning, but lost 3-1. They carried the play for most of the game and outshot the Lightning 34-22, but they could only solve Andrei Vasilevskiy once. Scoring once against the Lightning will never be enough to win.
Scoring once against the Minnesota Wild probably won’t lead to a win, but it would likely keep the Canadiens in it until the end. The Wild currently rank 23rd in the league in goals per game averaging 2.33 per contest.
The Wild are off to a brutal start to the season. They have one win in six games and lost the other five in regulation time so they have just two points in the standings. The only team they have been able to beat are the equally poor Ottawa Senators. Their leading scorer right now is journeyman defenseman Brad Hunt who has four points in six games.
The Canadiens need to find a consistent level of play as they’ve struggled to play a full 60 minutes in most of their games. They are going up against possibly the slowest team in the league and will need to use their depth and speed to put pressure on the Wild defense all night if they want to be successful.
Here is everything you need to know about tonight’s contest with the Minnesota Wild: