Five things to know ahead of Habs’ tilt with Flames

Here are five things to watch when the Canadiens (9-6-3) play the Calgary Flames (10-7-1) Thursday night at the Scotiabank Saddledome (9 p.m., TSN2, RDS, TSN 690 Radio), by Stu Cowan.

1 Price expected to start

Carey Price, who has been struggling with the mental part of his game, is expected to be back in goal for the Canadiens after sitting out the last two games while Antti Niemi played. Price has allowed at least four goals in each of his last four games (19 in total) and has a 1-3-1 record in his last five starts. Asked after practice Wednesday whether he learned anything while watching Niemi, who allowed six goals on 43 shots in Tuesday night’s 6-2 loss to the Oilers in Edmonton, Price said: “Obviously, it’s not fun losing like that, especially watching. But even when things got bleak Antti didn’t give up and that’s a good mentality to have.”

2 Domi on a roll

The Canadiens’ Max Domi extended his point streak to seven games when he scored against the Oilers, giving him 5-6-11 totals during that span. Domi has only been held off the scoresheet three times in 18 games this season and after Tuesday’s game ranked 10th in the NHL scoring race with 10-12-22 totals, trailing league leader Connor McDavid (10-16-26) of the Oilers by only four points.

3 Shaw provides a spark

Andrew Shaw scored the other goal for the Canadiens against the Oilers, giving him four in the last three games while playing on a line with Domi and Jonathan Drouin. Shaw (4-1-5) and Drouin (1-3-4) are both on three-game point streaks. The problem on that line has been winning faceoffs. Domi went 4-8 in the faceoff circle against the Oilers (33 per cent), while Shaw went 2-10 (17 per cent).

4 Igniting the Flames

The Flames’ No. 1 line with Sean Monahan at centre between Johnny Gaudreau and Elias Lindholm has combined for 24 goals and 56 points in the first 18 games. Monahan leads the Flames in scoring with 9-1019 totals, while Gaudreau has 6-13-19 and Lindholm 9-9-18. Matthew Tkachuk, who plays left wing on the second line with Mikael Backlund at centre and Sam Bennett on the right, has 7-12-19 totals.

5 Another struggling goalie

Mike Smith, the Flames’ No. 1 goalie, has been struggling this season with a 5-6-1 record, a 3.51 goals-against average and an .877 save percentage. Smith will start against the Canadiens even though backup David Rittich has been outstanding with a 5-1-0 record and a .935 save percentage.