The Montreal Canadiens look to bounce back from their loss to the Minnesota Wild tonight at the Bell Centre but may have to do so without Tomas Tata.
The break is over for the Montreal Canadiens. The team hasn’t played since Sunday night, where they dropped a 4-3 decision to the Minnesota Wild despite being up 3-2 at the beginning of the third period.
Keith Kinkaid gave the team an opportunity to win stopping 24 of 26 shots at even strength, but it was the two powerplay goals against that gave the Wild the edge. Another story from that night was the performance of the top line who combined for all three of the Montreal Canadiens’ goals, including two from Philip Danault.
The team mentioned compete and defensive responsibility as two things they need to improve on moving forward. They aren’t too far out from the main group; however, this break they’ve had has seen them drop out of a playoff spot. The Florida Panthers and Tampa Bay Lightning have jumped ahead of the Habs after earning wings against the Pittsburgh Penguins. Additionally, the Habs are behind the New York Islanders who hold the tiebreaker with more wins on the season.
The Montreal Canadiens need to start stringing some wins together, and the San Jose Sharks are a team in a similar position who are desperate to find consistency.
The Sharks are coming off a frustrating overtime loss to the Buffalo Sabres. They were up 2-0 until Jack Eichel scored the Sabres’ first goal of the game in the second period. Sam Reinhart and Jeff Skinner made it a 3-2 match in the third before Erik Karlsson tied things up in the latter half of the frame.
Unfortunately, a poor change from Timo Meir and Kevin Labanc gave Eichel the opening he needed to win it for Buffalo.
San Jose is visibly frustrated and will be motivated after captain Logan Couture called out the team. This means the Montreal Canadiens can’t afford to be soft in any way, shape or form. The Sharks can score a lot of goals and have a lot of veteran leadership along the bench who will dictate play.
Their downfall in the last calendar year as been their goaltending. The Sharks had the worst goaltending in the league last season with Martin Jones and Aaron Dell. To the disappointment of San Jose, nothing has changed as both are beneath the .900 range in save percentage with a .894 and .884, respectively.
That needs to be the area the Montreal Canadiens take advantage of. Tomas Tatar won’t be in the lineup because of a lower-body injury sustained in practice, but Joel Armia will return to play with Max Domi and Jonathan Drouin.
Projected #Habs lineup vs #SJSharks:
— John Lu (@JohnLuTSNWpg) October 24, 2019
Tatar - Danault - Gallagher
Drouin - Domi - Armia
Lehkonen - Kotkaniemi - Byron
Cousins - Thompson - Suzuki
Mete - Weber
Kulak - Petry
Chiarot - Fleury
Price starting
Kinkaid
Scratches: Weal, Reilly, Folin
Both teams have something to prove in this match. The Montreal Canadiens have the better goaltending with Carey Price starting, but we’ve seen what a determined and focused San Jose team can be. Hopefully, they don’t give them a chance to reach that state.