Montreal Canadiens Game Day vs Sens: Preview, Lines, Game Time, How To Watch
The Montreal Canadiens are looking to end a five game losing streak as the lowly Ottawa Senators arrive in town.
A game against the league’s worst team on your home ice should be the cure for what ails a team, but that might not be the case for the Habs.
Montreal have already played the Senators four times this season and have won just one of those contests. The Sens are 7-15-1 on the season, meaning they have won three of four against the Habs and four of 19 against everyone else. Also, the Habs home record of 3-5-0 is among the worst in the NHL.
This is reminiscent of last season when the Canadiens were battling for a playoff spot at midseason, but lost all four games to the Detroit Red Wings who were putting together one of the worst regular seasons in NHL history. Hopefully the Habs can turn this trend around tonight.
It will be the first time they face the Senators with Dominique Ducharme as the head coach. Claude Julien and Kirk Muller were fired last week, after losing consecutive games to the Senators.
The Habs have lost both games since the coaching change, but they looked much sharper on Saturday night, almost doubling the Winnipeg Jets in shots on goal, but falling 2-1 in overtime. That was their 5th straight loss, but it did have plenty of signs of optimism as they created many chances, and had lots of pressure in the Jets zone.
Based on yesterday’s practice lines, it doesn’t appear much is changing heading into tonight’s game.
Drouin – Suzuki – Toffoli
Tatar – Danault – Gallagher
Lehkonen – Kotkaniemi – Armia
Byron – Evans – Perry
Chiarot – Weber
Edmundson – Petry
Kulak – Romanov
Ducharme also said he hadn’t decided on who his starting goaltender would be, but he will announce it sometime today before the game. Carey Price has struggled most of the season and Jake Allen has been exceptional as the team’s backup.
Also, Josh Anderson did not practice after missing Saturday night’s game. There was no official word on his availability for tonight’s game.
Next. 3 Lineup Tweaks That Are Needed. dark
The game is scheduled to begin at 7:00 PM EST and can be seen on TSN2, TSN5 or RDS.