Montreal Canadiens Looking to Take Series Lead vs. Leafs in Game 3

The Montreal Canadiens will play their first playoff game at the Bell Centre in almost four years.

After getting dominated by the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday in Game 2, the Montreal Canadiens will play their first playoff game at home since the 2017 playoff series against the New York Rangers. Even if the stands are empty, sometimes, playing at home can be a good thing.

Cole Caufield will make his NHL playoff debut and at first, it looked like Tomas Tatar was going to be a healthy scratch but it has been confirmed by Head Coach Dominque Ducharme that Eric Staal will miss Game 3 because he’s not feeling 100 per cent and is out with an undisclosed injury.

The Canadiens played a solid 20 minutes on Saturday but after that, they took four straight penalties which cost them dearly and gave the Leafs the edge. They took over the game from there, scoring five unanswered goals to take it 5-1.

The Montreal Canadiens will need to stay out of the penalty box as the Maple Leafs’ powerplay seems to have found its groove, and with Auston Matthews, it can lead to dangerous situations that the Canadiens don’t want to find themselves in.

Ducharme has mixed his lines all over again including his defensive pairings, reuniting Shea Weber and Ben Chiarot with the hope they will play top minutes on the Canadiens blue line and stop the Leaf’s offence.

The only difference from their morning skate might be Paul Byron playing in Staal’s place on the fourth line and Tatar playing in Byron’s spot.

The Canadiens once again have found themselves in an all too familiar situation which is a lack of goal scoring. Bringing in Caufield could help as he has four goals in 10 games, and two of them came against Toronto. Hopefully, that will provide a spark.

Puck drop is scheduled for 7:00 pm and the game will be available on CBC, Sportsnet, and the NHL Network. TVA Sports will have the French broadcast, while on radio both TSN 690 and 1050 will have the call.