After a tough outing on Saturday night, Martin St-Louis and his newly formed lines will be looking to bounce back when they take on the newest team in the NHL, the Utah Hockey Club.
Both teams have got a 3-6-1 record in their last 10 games, after 21 games, Andre Tourigny’s men have 19 points and are sitting in fifth place of their division. Meanwhile, after playing 20 games, the Canadiens have 16 points and are dead last in the Atlantic, one point behind the Ottawa Senators.
Tonight’s game will feature two of the three first picks of the 2022 draft. Since that day, Juraj Slafkovsky has played 138 games in the NHL picking up 71 points for a 0.51 points-per-game average while Logan Cooley (who was picked third overall by the finally defunct Arizona Coyotes) has played 103 games picking up 60 points along the way for a .58 PPG average.
Cooley, who is playing his sophomore season, is currently third in scoring for Utah with 16 points while Clayton Keller leads the pack with 19. Meanwhile, Slafkovsky is fifth in scoring in Montreal with 11 points in 17 games, and is going through a rough patch. He finished the last game with a minus-four rating and found himself on a line with Kirby Dach and Joel Armia at yesterday’s practice.
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In net, backup Karel Vejmelka has started eight games and has a 2-6-0 record with a very respectable 2.30 goals-against average and a .926 save percentage. He has played the Canadiens three times and has a 2-0-1 record, with a 2.66 GAA and a .912 SP.
As for starter Connor Ingram, he was given the start 13 times and has a 6-4-3 record with a 3.61 GAA and a .871 SP. He is however day-to-day with an injury right now, which is why Utah called up Jaxson Stauber who only has six games of NHL experience with the Chicago Blackhawks in 2022-23.
In Montreal, the netminders are still looking to right the ship, Samuel Montembeault had managed to get his SP above .900 but after being hung up to dry by his team on Saturday, he’s back to a .899 SP with a 3.08 GAA through 16 games. The Canadiens’ number one only faced Arizona four times and had a 2-1-0 record against them with a 3.59 GAA and a .885 SP. As for backup Cayden Primeau, he has had a really rough time so far this season, he has a 1-2-1 record in five starts and a 4.59 GAA and a .842 SP. He faced the Coyotes twice in his young career and had a 0-1-0 record with a 3.77 GAA and a .815 SP.
Tonight’s tilt will be the first of two meetings between the two sides this season with the return leg being played on January 14 in Utah. Clayton Keller is the new team’s best player against the Canadiens with 14 points in 11 games while defenseman Olli Maatta has also got 14 points but in 25 contests. Nick Schmaltz also has 11 points in as many games and former Canadiens draft pick, Mikhail Sergachev has seven points in 18 games.
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Cole Caufield had four goals in five games against the Coyotes while Brendan Gallagher was the Canadiens’ best scorer against them with 13 points in 16 games. Captain Nick Suzuki has only picked up three points in eight games against the Arizona outfit, there’s definitely room for improvement and who knows, this fresh start may help.
As this is the first match between the two teams, there are of course no stats available on past meetings. However, the Canadiens had a 53-22-9 record against the Coyotes and won the last tilt 4-2 in Montreal last February. The Habs won six of their last 10 meetings with Utah’s ancestors. The game is one of only two on offer tonight in the NHL and it is set for 7:00 PM.
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