After dropping two points against the San Jose Sharks at the Bell Centre on Saturday night, the Montreal Canadiens will have to bounce right back to take on the Anaheim Ducks on Sunday night. The Habs lost their first meeting against Anaheim last week in a lengthy shootout session with Samuel Montembeault in what would be his last start before the decision was made to call up Jacob Fowler.
The good news for the Canadiens is that the Ducks will be without their captain, Radko Gudas, who is serving a five-game suspension for ending Toronto Maple Leafs’ captain Auston Matthews’ season. No, that Gudas has that much of an impact, but he plays carelessly, and the last thing Montreal needs would be an injury to a key player.
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Neither team has confirmed who will be their starter today, but given the fact that both teams played yesterday, we should see a Jacob Fowler vs. Lukas Dostal matchup. The Ducks were shut out 2-0 by the Ottawa Senators on Saturday night with Ville Husso in the net.
Fowler has never played the Ducks, but he has a 5-4-2 record this season, including a shutout with a 2.56 goals-against average and a .906 save percentage. Meanwhile, Dobes has never faced them, but he is 21-7-4 with a 2.97 GAA and a .891 SV% on the season. He should be the one who backs up Fowler tonight, even though that hasn’t been confirmed yet, and there will be no media availability before the game.
As for the Ducks, Dostal has a 3-1-1 record with a 3.11 GAA and a .882 SV in five career games against the Canadiens, while Husso is 4-0-2 with a 1.95 GAA and a .929 SV and two shutouts.
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Up front, we know that Brendan Gallagher will be back in the lineup tonight. Martin St-Louis was clear about that on Saturday morning, but we’ll have to wait until game time to know who will make way. Zachary Bolduc or Alexandre Texier could be possibilities. The alternate captain is the Canadiens’ point leader against Anaheim with 12 points in 16 games, followed by Phillip Danault with 11 points in 26 games, and Nick Suzuki wraps up the top three with nine points in just 10 games. It’s also worth mentioning that Lane Hutson has four points in three games against Anaheim, while Zachary Bolduc has six points in as many nights, and Cole Caufield has six points in seven tilts.
As for the Ducks, new acquisition John Carlson has 28 points in 46 games, but he has yet to play for his new team since he was traded and is currently listed as day-to-day. Chris Kreider comes in second place with 22 points in 33 games, including four in last week’s game. Veterans Alex Killorn and Mikael Granlund both have 21 points, the former in 43 games and the latter in just 20 games. As for Troy Terry, who’s currently listed as day-to-day, he only has 10 points, but he got them in just nine games.
Since beating the Habs last week, the Ducks have lost three of their last four games and have a 6-4-0 record in their last 10 games. They are involved in a three-way battle with the Vegas Golden Knights and the Edmonton Oilers for the Pacific Division lead and sit in second place, a single point behind the Knights, making tonight’s game all the more important for them. Meanwhile, the Canadiens are 5-2-3 in their last 10 games and now only have a two-point lead on the Boston Bruins and Detroit Red Wings, who occupy the two wild-card spots. The Habs have games in hand on both teams, but they still need the win, ideally in regulation. Should they end the season tied in points, the number of regulation wins is a tie-breaker, and Montreal only has 25 of them, just like Detroit, while the Bruins have 27. The Ducks have won six of the last 10 duels between the two teams.
The game is set for 7:00 PM, and you can catch it on RDS, TSN2, KCOP-13, and Victory+. Frederick L’Ecuyer and Francis Charron are set to officiate, while Julien Fournier and Jesse Marquis will serve as the linemen. After seeing Macklin Celbrini, the Bell Centre crowd will get to see Beckett Sennecke in action. The youngster is second in points amongst rookies with 51, just one behind Ivan Demidov, who has 52. Rookie blueliner Matthew Schaefer is catching up on both of them; however, he now has 48 points.
Follow Karine on X @KarineHains Bluesky @karinehains.bsky.social and Threads @karinehains.
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