Montreal Canadiens Defence Will Have Hard Time With New Oilers Lines

The Montreal Canadiens should be the underdog before just about every game for the second half of the NHL season.

A record of 8-26-7 in the first half of the season will do that to a team. When you lose just about every game, you are expected to keep doing it.

Especially when the Canadiens defence has been a massive train wreck most of this season. They have used four different goaltenders this season and all of them have been hung out to dry by the skaters in front of them. Lately, it has become common to see the Habs allow 45 shots or more against in a single game.

That defence is going to be tested heavily once again tonight. The Edmonton Oilers were in a bit of a free fall of their own recently, but have bounced back to win a few games lately. They also added a controversial new top six forward that makes them a more dangerous offensive team.

Evander Kane was signed by the Oilers earlier this week and will make his debut with the Oilers tonight in Montreal.

He will step right on to the top line with Connor McDavid and Kailer Yamamoto, giving the Oilers a ridiculously fast and skilled first line. McDavid is the best player in the world and Kane scored 22 goals and 49 points in 56 games last season for the San Jose Sharks.

Adding Kane allows the Oilers to spread out their offence over three scoring lines. Leon Draisaitl is now comfortably centering the second line with a big, skilled winger in Jesse Puljujarvi and a gritty, two-way Warren Foegele.

The third line for the Oilers tonight is Ryan Nugent-Hopkins between Zach Hyman and Zack Kassian.

That is incredible depth up front that will allow the Oilers to roll three lines that can score. The Canadiens defence recently had a hard time slowing down the Arizona Coyotes offence, so three legit NHL scoring lines is going to be a tough task for the defensively irresponsible Montreal Canadiens.

Samuel Montembeault will have the unenviable task of standing in the crease as the Oilers surely fire 40 or more shots at him tonight. Thanks to the Habs lack of offence, Montembeault only needs to stop about 95% of the shots fired his way to give the team a chance to win this evening.