After resuming training on Saturday, the Montreal Canadiens will play their first post-Christmas game when they take on the Tampa Bay Lightning at Amalie Arena this afternoon. While the Habs eased themselves back in yesterday, the Bolts were taking on the Florida Panthers in a battle of Florida. It turned out to be a spirited tilt, with 136 penalty minutes handed out. Jon Cooper’s men still prevailed 4-2, but it certainly wasn’t a walk in the park.
Meanwhile, the Canadiens provided an update on Jake Evans, who will be missing four to six weeks because of a lower-body injury. Evans had left the previous game just minutes in after a knee-on-knee collision. In a way, the worst has been averted since he’s not going under the knife, but knee injuries (if it is a knee injury) are tricky to recover from, and it does happen that a conventional approach turns out not to be enough. Fingers crossed this is not the case here.
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As for Alexandre Texier, who also left the last game after being shaken up in a hard collision, he was practicing and wearing a regular jersey, which means he will be available this afternoon. In Evans’ absence, the lines at practice were as follows:
Cole Caufield – Nick Suzuki – Zach Bolduc
Ivan Demidov – Oliver Kapanen – Juraj Slafkovsky
Texier – Phillip Danault – Josh Anderson
Owen Beck/Samuel Blais – Joe Veleno – Brandon Gallagher
On the backend, the pairings were the same as they were before the break:
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Mike Matheson – Noah Dobson
Lane Hutson – Alexandre Carrier
Arber Xhekaj/Jayden Struble – Adam Engstrom
With Samuel Montembeault being officially recalled, Martin St-Louis wasted no time in announcing that Jacob Fowler would be getting the start against the Lightning. The Florida native posted a 6-2 win against the Boston Bruins on the eve of the Christmas break and had shut out the Pittsburgh Penguins in his previous start, so the coach has decided to ride the hot hand for now. Still, he did mention that the plan was to get Montembeault some game action soon.
It’s the second year in a row that the traditional road trip over the holidays includes some uncertainty in net. Last year, Jakub Dobes made his debut in this road trip after Cayden Primeau was assigned to the Laval Rocket. The Czech goalie never went back down; it remains to be seen if the result will be the same for Fowler.
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Fowler has never taken on the Lightning, while Montembeault has a 3-3-1 record against Tampa Bay with a 2.99 goal-against-average and a .898 save percentage. As for Dobes, he has a 0-1-0 record with an 8.80 GAA and a .727 SV against the hosts.
At the other end of the ice, Andrei Vasilevskiy, who was in the net on Saturday against the Panthers, has a 16-3-2 record against the Habs with a 2.08 GAA and a .931 SV. As for backup Jonas Johansson, he’s 3-2-0 with a 3.81 GAA and a .872 SV and was in the net for the only game between the two sides so far this season.
Up front, the Canadiens will need to keep a close eye on the usual suspects. Nikita Kucherov has 46 points in just 39 games against the Sainte-Flanelle, while Brayden Point has 26 points in 30 games, and Jake Guentzel has 23 points in 19 duels.
Meanwhile, the Canadiens have only three players who have reached double digits in points against the Florida outfit: Gallagher with 19 points in 38 games, Danault with 14 points in 27 games, and Suzuki with 13 points in 19 games.
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Today’s game will be the second of four duels planned this season, with the other two taking place on March 31 and April 9. Tampa has won seven of the last 10 tilts between the divisional rivals, but it hasn’t been that long since the Habs grabbed a win at Amalie Arena. Montreal won there on December 29 by a score of 5-2 with Montembeault in the net.
The game is set for 5:00 PM, and you can catch it on The Spot, TSN2, and RDS. After the tilt, the Canadiens will take a short flight to Fort Lauderdale in readiness for their next game, a battle with the Panthers on December 30.
Follow Karine on X @KarineHains Bluesky @karinehains.bsky.social and Threads @karinehains.
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