The Montreal Canadiens continue their three-game road trip against the Vegas Golden Knights. Here is everything you need to know about tonight’s contest.
The Montreal Canadiens continue their three game road trip through the western United States. They have three games in four days. After facing the Arizona Coyotes last night, they take on the Vegas Golden Knights tonight before wrapping up their trip against the Dallas Stars on Saturday evening.
These two teams don’t have much of a history on the ice. The Golden Knights have only been around for two seasons, so they have only ever faced one another four times. The Canadiens went 2-0 against the Golden Knights last season. They won 5-4 in Montreal and then won 4-3 in overtime in Vegas later in the season.
The Habs and Golden Knights don’t even have much of a compelling story from the expansion draft. Vegas selected Alexei Emelin from the Habs, a depth defenseman who was making $4.1 million at the time. Vegas kind of did the Habs a favour by getting the final season of that contract off their books. Emelin was later traded to the Nashville Predators before ever playing for the Golden Knights.
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These two teams did however, link up for a huge trade just over a year ago. Montreal sent their captain and top goal scorer, Max Pacioretty to the Golden Knights in exchange for Tomas Tatar, Nick Suzuki and a second round draft pick.
Who would have thought, just over a year later that Tatar and Suzuki would both have more goals than Pacioretty? Tatar and Suzuki each have three goals on the season while Pacioretty has a pair. That’s not a huge indictment of Pacioretty. He has nine assists for 11 points which is more than Tatar or Suzuki, but it’s just odd how we all worried about who would score goals for the Habs after trading Pacioretty and two players acquired in that trade have more goals right now.
Vegas is off to a decent start to the season, with a 8-5-0 record thus far. They have been dominant at home since their inception but are just 4-3-0 this season.
It will be a tough game for the Canadiens after playing the Coyotes last night. They are likely to have Keith Kinkaid starting in goal tonight. Playing in a tough building after playing yesterday with the backup goaltender in net certainly won’t make it an easy night for the Canadiens.
Can they pull out a few points on the road tonight? Here is everything you need to know to get you ready to watch tonight’s game against the Vegas Golden Knights.