Game preview and how to watch
Game 22: Montreal Canadiens @ Utah Mammoth
Start time: **9:30 PM EST / 6:30 PM PST**
In the Canadiens region: TSN2 (English), RDS (French)
In the Mammoth region: Utah16
Streaming: ESPN+, RDS, TSN+
The Montreal Canadiens are no stranger to going on long tours in the United States during holidays with their annual Christmas trip through Florida. This year, they’ve headed off to play some Western Conference teams in the week the U.S. celebrates Thanksgiving. There will be a back-to-back of afternoon games at the end of the week, but first they’ll kick off the three-game trip with a later match versus the Utah Mammoth.
Montreal’s first trip west this season was a successful one, going 3-1 versus the northern half of the Pacific Division. Tonight will be the second time the Canadiens play at Delta Center in Salt Lake City, earning a win during a red-hot run in January. We can’t use that adjective to describe them right now after just going through a stretch of five games without a win, but they managed to beat the uninterested Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday night to bank a little bit of confidence for the road.
Tale of the Tape
| Canadiens | Statistics | Mammoth |
|---|---|---|
| 11-7-3 | Record | 12-8-3 |
| 50.3% (12th) | Expected-goal share | 53.1% (6th) |
| 3.43 (4th) | Goals per game | 3.09 (15th) |
| 3.52 (27th) | Goals against per game | 2.96 (16th) |
| 21.0% (14th) | PP% | 13.8% (30th) |
| 76.4% (23rd) | PK% | 84.1% (6th) |
| 1-0-0 | Head-to-Head Record | 0-1-0 |
| Cole Caufield (13) | Most goals | Logan Cooley (13) |
| Nick Suzuki (18) | Most assists | Nick Schmaltz (12) |
| Nick Suzuki (23) | Most points | Nick Schmaltz (22) |
Utah has had a similar run to Montreal this year, piling up wins early in the season (they held an 8-2 record thanks to a seven-game winning streak) then struggling to add to them over the next few weeks. They had gone a stretch of 11 games from October 28 to November 20 winning just two games, but have managed to win their last two contests to hang on to a wild-card spot.
The parallels don’t just end at the team level. In previewing the first game a comparison was made between Nick Suzuki and Nick Schmaltz. Neither player was going a game without recording a point in the opening month of the season. Now Suzuki, clearly hampered by an issue that’s negatively impacting his offensive play, has four points in his last eight games, while Schmaltz enters this evening’s contest with one assist in his last six matches.
Though Schmaltz is dealing with a four-game point drought, it was raining hats on Logan Cooley on Monday night when he scored four times and added an assist to factor in on every goal in a 5-1 win over the Vegas Golden Knights. With that performance, he’s now just one point from tying Schmaltz for the team point lead.
The task of icing Cooley will fall to Jakub Dobeš, confirmed as the starter after he was the one to end the losing streak on Saturday in Montreal. The Maple Leafs were very kind to Dobeš that night as their shots were fired mostly from the perimeter to allow for easy saves. That’s not going to be the case tonight from a Mammoth team that ranks in the top 10 for creating high-danger chances at five-on-five. This is a clash between teams that rank seventh and eighth in full-strength offence per game this year, and the better goaltender could be the difference.
