Five things you should know about the HabsBruins game at the Bell Centre on Saturday (7 p.m., Sportsnet, TVA Sports, TSN-690 Radio), by Pat Hickey.
1 The matchup
This is the second half of a back-to-back for both teams. The Canadiens were in Buffalo, where they put up a strong fight in a late afternoon game Friday, but lost in overtime on Jeff Skinner’s second goal of the contest. This game seemed to represent at least a temporary change in the Canadiens’ philosophy as the team relied more on defence than it has in its earlier games. The Canadiens have lost three games in a row for the first time this season, but two of those losses were in overtime.
2 Gallagher finds the mark
Max Domi’s consecutive-game points streak ended Friday when he was held off the scoresheet in Buffalo, but Brendan Gallagher scored his 11th goal of the season to tie Domi for the team scoring lead. It was Gallagher’s second goal in the last three games after going through an eight-game goal drought. Andrew Shaw scored the other Montreal goal on a power play and he now has seven goals for the season.
3 Price back in nets
Carey Price gets the start against the Bruins and he’ll be looking to duplicate his earlier effort in Boston. He made 33 saves on Oct. 27 to lead Montreal to a 3-0 shutout win. Price has won only two of his last seven starts and is coming off a 5-2 loss in New Jersey on Wednesday night, although most of the goals against him could be chalked up to bad defensive play. Look for Julien to give him a little help in that regard with the same game plan he used in Buffalo.
4 The other guys
For the second time this season, we’re unlikely to see a matchup between Price and former teammate Jaroslav Halak. The veteran Slovak played at home Friday night, which means we’ll be seeing Tuukka Rask. David Pastrnak has been scoring at a torrid pace this season. He has 17 goals to share the NHL lead with Skinner. But Pastrnak is the only Bruin to hit double figures this season. Brad Marchand has only six goals among his 21 points, while David Krejci has only two goals and 14 assists.
5 Injury report
The Canadiens had some good news this week as captain Shea Weber took part in some contact drills and he could be back in the lineup as early as Tuesday when the Canadiens are home to the Carolina Hurricanes. The news isn’t as good for the Bruins, who are missing three defencemen. Zdeno Chara is out with a knee injury, Charlie McAvoy has a concussion and Brandon Carlo has an upper-body injury.