With their 6-2 win over the Florida Panthers, the Montreal Canadiens leapfrogged the Detroit Red Wings in the standings and landed atop the Atlantic Division. This means that on Saturday night, at the Bell Centre, the duel between the Habs and the Wings will be for the divisional lead.
Both teams are in excellent form: the Canadiens have won their last three games and are 7-1-2 in their previous 10, while the visitors are 7-2-1 in their last 10 and have won their previous two games. The two teams have won five of their last 10 duels, but Montreal has won the previous two.
The Habs had a day off yesterday, and Martin St-Louis has yet to reveal who will be in the net tonight. Jakub Dobes is the only goaltender who hasn’t seen any action this week, and he hasn’t played since January 1 against the Carolina Hurricanes.
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The Czech netminder was in the net for the previous duel with the Wings in October, a 5-1 win. That was his only game against them, meaning he has a 1-0-0 record, a 1.00 goal-against average, and a 968 save percentage. Meanwhile, Samuel Montembeault has a 4-1-2 record, with a 2.67 GAA and a .914 SV. As for Jacob Fowler, he has never faced Detroit.
Meanwhile, Todd McLellan has already said that John Gibson would get the nod tonight. The American netminder has a 7-3-1 record against the Habs with a 2.63 GAA and a .915 SV. Meanwhile, Cam Talbot, who will act as backup, is 9-4-1 with a 1.60 GAA and a .939 SV. The Wings are splitting the workload between their two goaltenders pretty evenly, with Gibson having featured in 26 games while Talbot has appeared in 21.
Unlike the Canadiens, the Wings are fully healthy; none of their player is unavailable, while the Habs are still without Alex Newhook, Patrik Kane, Kirby Dach, and Jake Evans. Kaiden Guhle could return tonight, but we’ll have confirmation after the morning skate around 11:00 AM when Martin St-Louis speaks to the media. As for Josh Anderson, he’s still not on the injured reserve list, but he hasn’t played since the duel with the Hurricanes on New Year’s Day. Since then, all we’ve heard is that he’s dealing with an upper-body injury.
Brendan Gallagher is the Canadiens’ most productive forward against the Wings with 34 points in 38 games, followed by captain Nick Suzuki with 18 points in 20 games and newcomer Phillip Danault, who also has 18 points but in 26 games. Lane Hutson, Suzuki, Oliver Kapanen, Juraj Slafkovsky, and Alexandre Carrier are all on a three-game point streak. At the same time, Alexandre Texier has six points in his last two games, with four goals and two assists.
James Van Riemsdyk leads the Wings in points against Montreal with 34 points in 49 games, followed by Patrick Kane, who scored the 500th goal of his career in the Wings’ last game, with 24 points in 28 games. “Showtime” has been left off the Team USA roster for the Olympics and is no doubt playing with a chip on his shoulder right now. Captain Dylan Larkin wraps up the top three with 23 points against the Canadiens in 35 games.
The game is set for 7:00 PM, and you can catch it on FDSNDET, Sportsnet East, City TV and TVA Sports. Tom Chmielewski and Kelly Sutherland will be officiating, while David Brisebois and Dan Kelly will act as linesmen. The Canadiens’ next game is Monday night against the Vancouver Canucks at 7:30 PM.
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