Game preview and how to watch
Game 67: Montreal Canadiens vs. Boston Bruins
Start time: 7:00 PM EDT / 4:00 PM PDT
In the Canadiens region: TSN2 (English), RDS (French)
In the Bruins region: NESN
Streaming: ESPN+, RDS, TSN+
The Montreal Canadiens may have played their worst defensive game of the season on Sunday. Not because they allowed the most goals (though they can maybe thank Jacob Fowler and his hot glove hand for that), but because they continually made poor decisions when their puck was in their end. A combination of unnecessarily dangerous passes, abandoned assignments to leave players completely alone, and simple failure to provide resistance to players skating into the slot with the puck made things too easy for the Anaheim Ducks. The three high-danger goals allowed at five-on-five were the most since the game in Tampa Bay on December 28, and Anaheim had 13 other chances right around the net besides the ones they scored on.
No team harmed its playoff chances over the weekend more than Montreal did, going in with a three-game winning streak to face two beatable opponents and ending up with zero points. That dropped their odds of making the post-season from 95% to about 85% by HockeyViz’s modelling, and now there’s much more pressure on the Canadiens to finish the season strong than there should have been.
If there’s any good news from the embarrassing back-to-back set it’s that it wasn’t the disaster it could have been if another Eastern Conference playoff hopeful was on the opposite side of the ice. There were no four-point swings from giving points to trailing teams, just missed chances to add points to their own total. That type of game with major implications for their own playoff standing is about to become a regular occurrence for the Habs over the next couple of weeks, and it starts with an Atlantic Division team eyeing up the third seed the Canadiens currently occupy: the Boston Bruins.
Tale of the Tape
| Canadiens | Statistics | Bruins |
|---|---|---|
| 36-20-10 | Record | 37-23-6 |
| 48.5% (23rd) | Expected-goal share | 46.5% (28th) |
| 3.50 (2nd) | Goals per game | 3.27 (10th) |
| 3.26 (24th) | Goals against per game | 3.09 (18th) |
| 24.2% (7th) | PP% | 24.1% (8th) |
| 76.9% (27th) | PK% | 77.5% |
| 1-2-0 | Head-to-Head Record | 2-1-0 |
| Cole Caufield (39) | Most goals | Morgan Geekie (34) |
| Lane Hutson (56) | Most assists | David Pastrnak (55) |
| Nick Suzuki (78) | Most points | David Pastrnak (79) |
The Bruins have been alternating wins and losses since the Olympics ended, last night losing in overtime to the New Jersey Devils. Many of their games have been decided after 60 minutes recently, allowing them to accumulate points and stay involved in the playoff race. The point earned last night with a third-period tying goal from David Pastrnak has them one back of Montreal, with one more game played.
Boston is a significantly better team playing at their home TD Garden than on the road, and that trend has remained following the Olympic break. They are 4-1-0 on home ice (the one loss coming to the Sharks, so the Canadiens aren’t alone in losing to the young Pacific upstarts), but just 1-2-2 when they have to travel. The difference in their defence depending on where the games are played this season is quite astounding; they have the second-best goals-against average of 2.60 on home ice, and the second-worst at 3.66 on the road. While the Canadiens have been a better road team this season, it might be for the best that the finale of this season series isn’t being hosted by their rival, even if TD Garden was the site of their only win in the three games played thus far.
As ever, David Pastrnak is their most productive player, and on the road he’s also their top goal-scorer, with 16 versus overall team leader Morgan Geekie’s 14. Pastrnak hasn’t scored a goal in the series versus Montreal, but did record two assists in his first game at the Bell Centre this season, and currently rides a 13-game point streak versus the Habs.
Montreal does find it impossible to keep him off the scoresheet, but in addition to his point streak, he has also finished his last five games versus the Habs with a negative goal differential, setting up goals on the power play, but having them scored against his line with the game at five-on-five. Avoiding the penalty box is always part of a winning strategy for a Canadiens team that ranks among the final six teams in the NHL in that situation, and it’s especially crucial in this matchup.
You can only hope that the importance of this game brings out Montreal’s best defensive play. We do only have to go back to Wednesday’s game versus the Ottawa Senators to find a better effort in that department, when Montreal had 58.4% of the expected goals versus the team that ranks third in that stat this season. That particular win in Kanata was a nice one to have to build a cushion over a team some distance behind in the playoff race. A win tonight in the last head-to-head battle between the clubs is a must if Montreal wants to stay ahead of Boston.
