Big week as Habs play two teams they’re chasing
Coaches will tell you every game is important, but the Canadiens will play four games during the next six days and they will go a long way in determining whether this is a playoff team.
All the signs to date indicate that fans will be anxiously awaiting the results of the lottery draw next spring — sportsclubstats.com rates the Canadiens’ chances of making the playoffs at 4.3 per cent — but the Canadiens have an opportunity to improve those chances with a strong performance this week.
The key is the away-and-home series against the Detroit Red Wings to finish the week. The Canadiens are in Detroit Thursday for their first look at Little Caesars Arena, and the teams meet again Saturday at the Bell Centre.
The Atlantic Division is again weak and the two wild cards in the Eastern Conference will probably come from the stronger Metropolitan Division. That means the Canadiens must finish in the top three in the division, and Detroit currently holds down the third spot. The Red Wings are currently four points up on the Canadiens, but Montreal can close the gap if they take at least three of a possible four points in the two-game series.
There are two games to be played before the Canadiens hit the road. On Monday night, Montreal faces Columbus for the second time this month. The Canadiens stole a point on Nov. 14 when they took the Blue Jackets to overtime before losing 2-1. The challenge for the 30th-ranked offence in the NHL will be to find a way to get some pucks behind Sergei Bobrovsky. The offence looked better Saturday with Paul Byron providing Jonathan Drouin and Alex Galchenyuk with a worker bee on the top line.
On Wednesday, the Canadiens are home to the Ottawa Senators. This is another team the Canadiens are chasing, and the visitors will be looking for revenge after the Canadiens crushed them 8-3 in Ottawa on Oct. 30.
A key decision for coach Claude Julien will be how to deploy his goaltenders for the back-to-back
games on Wednesday and Thursday. In the past, Carey Price has played at home, but this is a case where the greatest need might be in Detroit.
Fourth-line woes: The Canadiens are averaging 2.33 goals a game, which means that nobody is setting the world on fire, but the lack of production from the fourth line is stunning. Jacob De La Rose, Michael McCarron, Byron Froese, Nicolas Deslauriers, Nikits Scherbak and the recently traded Torrey Mitchell have played a combined 48 games this season without scoring a single
point. I’ve been told Daniel Carr is too slow, but it’s difficult to imagine that he and Chris Terry can be worse than the current cast.
Goaltender shuffle: With Price returning to the lineup, the Canadiens sent Charlie Lindgren back to the Laval Rocket despite the fact he’s enjoying a better season than veteran Antti Niemi. The decision was made because Lindgren needs to play, but it might have made sense to keep him with the big club and give Price a little more time off.
Cheers for old Notre Dame: The Fighting Irish are enjoying their first season of hockey in the Big Ten. Notre Dame, which is No. 4 in the NCAA rankings, is 6-0 after sweeping second-place Minnesota 1-0 and 5-2 on the weekend. The team’s leader on offence is centre Jake Evans, a senior who was drafted by the Canadiens in the seventh round (207th overall) in 2014. Evans had a goal and two assists on the weekend and is the leading scorer in NCAA hockey with six goals and 25 points in 16 games.