A tale of two teams trying to stay in the playoff race
Here are five things you should know about Saturday night’s game between the Canadiens (23-17-5) and the Colorado Avalanche (2016-8) at the Bell Centre (7 p.m., SN, TVA Sports, TSN 690 Radio):
1.Playoff races
After going 1-3-0 in their last four games, the Canadiens have fallen out of a playoff spot. After Thursday night’s 4-1 loss to the Blues in St. Louis, the Canadiens were one point behind both the New York Islanders — who held the first wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference — and the Buffalo Sabres — who held the second spot. The Islanders hold three games in hand and the Sabres had two in hand before facing Carolina Friday night. The Canadiens are on pace for 93 points and last season it took 97 points to make the playoffs in the Eastern Conference. The Avalanche held the first wild-card spot in the Western Conference going into Friday’s action.
2.Special teams
The Canadiens have the worst power play in the NHL, going 1-for17 in the last six games and clicking at only 12.8 per cent for the season. The Avalanche rank 27th in penalty killing at 75.5 per cent, so maybe this is a night the Canadiens power play can do something. The Avalanche are ranked fifth in the NHL on the power play at 25.9 per cent, while the Canadiens rank 21st in penalty killing at 78.4 per cent. Tomas Tatar leads the Canadiens with four power-play goals, while Mikko Rantanen leads the Avalanche with 10.
3.Terrific trio
The Avalanche have the best offensive line in the NHL with Nathan MacKinnon at centre between Gabriel Landeskog and Rantanen. The line has scored 73 of the Avalanche’s 151 goals this season — or 48 per cent of them. Through Thursday’s games, Rantanen ranked second in the NHL scoring race with 68 points (20 goals) — four points behind the Tampa Bay Lightning’s Nikita Kucherov (2151-72) — while MacKinnon ranked fourth (26-40-66) and Landeskog was 15th (27-24-51). When the Avalanche beat the Canadiens 2-1 in Colorado on Dec. 19, Rantanen and Landeskog scored the goals.
4.The goalies
Carey Price will be looking to end a personal three-game losing streak, during which he has allowed eight goals. Price’s last victory was on Jan. 3 when he made 33 saves to shut out the Vancouver Canucks 2-0 at the Bell Centre in his first game back after missing three with a lower-body injury. For the season, Price has a 16-13-4 record with a 2.75 goals-against average and a .908 save percentage. Goaltending has been a problem for the Avalanche, especially over the last nine games when they had a 1-6-2 record while giving up 34 goals. For the season, Semyon Varlamov has an 11-9-5 record with a 2.85 goals-against average and a .908 save percentage, while Philipp Grubauer has a 9-5-3 record with a 3.29 GAA and a .895 save percentage.
5.Faceoffs
The Canadiens are almost as bad at faceoffs as they are on the power play, ranking 30th in the NHL in the faceoff circle with a 47 per cent success rate. The Washington Capitals are the only team that’s even worse on faceoffs, winning 46.2 per cent. The Avalanche rank 24th at 48.3 per cent.