It's difficult to label this Montreal Canadiens game against the Nashville Predators as a "road trip." Montreal suffered through a road trip last week, as they lost the first three games before saving it with a win over the Florida Panthers. The Canadiens then rallied off three consecutive wins at home this week before having to pack their bags and return to the charter.
It'll be the last real road trip of the season for the Habs, as they return to the Bell Centre on Tuesday night and play the rest of their games in Eastern Canada. Montreal travels to Ottawa and Toronto next weekend, before finishing their year with two home games.
Anyone who has been watching the NHL long enough knows the general scheduling decisions that the league typically makes. If an East Coast team goes to the West Coast they knock out three or four games, normally with a Western Canadian trip and a Los Angeles trip. They'll also do the same thing when any team goes to Florida, facing the Panthers and Tampa Bay Lightning in back-to-back games. It'll also happen in Eastern Canada with the Canadiens, Toronto Maple Leafs, and Ottawa Senators.
The Predators are in a more secluded area to the rest of the league, but normally the schedule calls for a stopover in Tennessee after facing the Colorado Avalanche or Dallas Stars. Well, for the Canadiens, it seems like this scheduling quirk slipped through the cracks, which leaves them with an interesting trip on Sunday night. If I didn't know any better, I'd say that the league forgot they didn't schedule a Canadiens-Predators game and fit it in wherever they could.
The Canadiens played a hard fought game against the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday night which came down to the wire thanks to a late Tyson Foerster goal to make it 3-2. Instead of getting the rest of the night off, the Canadiens had to rush to the airport to catch a flight to Nashville, for a game that starts nearly 21 hours after their game against the Flyers ends. The over two hour flight likely put them in Nashville in the early hours of the morning, which could be trouble for their legs on Sunday night.
The good news is the Predators didn't end up being the team everyone thought they would be this season. They've seemingly checked out of this year and have lost six of their past seven games. The Columbus Blue Jackets and Dallas Stars combined for 13 goals over the last two losses. If the Predators were a wagon this season and the Canadiens were having to make this trip with their playoff hopes on the line, it'd be much more concerning. However, the resilient Canadiens have been defying the odds all season and it wouldn't be outside the realm of possibility they do it again on Sunday night.