When the Dallas Stars rolled into town last weekend, the Montreal Canadiens had a three-game winning streak going, but Peter DeBoer’s men put an end to it with a 2-1 shootout win. Five days later, the Habs will be looking for revenge.
After playing with fire early in their duel with the Utah Hockey Club, the Canadiens’ players showed they can move on from a bad period and focus on the task at end. Since Montreal had a travelling day yesterday and there was no practice or media availability, the identity of the starting goaltender is unknown.
Related: Three Takeaways From the Canadiens’ Tilt In Utah
The timing could be good to give Jakub Dobes another start before making the two goalies split this weekend’s back-to-back. It would be the first time he’d take on the Starts, as for Samuel Montembeault, he has taken on Dallas five times and has a 2-2-1 record with a 2.58 goals-against average and .933 save percentage.
At the other end of the ice, we’ll either see Jake Oettinger (5-1-0, 2.54 GAA and a .906 SP) or Casey DeSmith (3-2-2, 2.37 GAA and a .921 SP). Oettinger played the last game against the Toronto Maple Leafs, but DeSmith was in net on Sunday night against the Ottawa Senators, so it would be surprising to see him man the net again this week.
Up front, Patrik Laine who scored the Canadiens’ sole goal against Dallas on Saturday now has 27 points against the Texas outfit in 27 games with Nick Suzuki being a distant second with 12 points in nine games. The captain has been red-hot of late with points in his last seven games, closely followed by rookie Lane Hutson who has points in the last five games.
As for the host, Matt Duchene leads the way with 22 points in 26 duels while Jamie Benn has 21 points in 22 games. Benn was also his team’s only goal scorer in regulation on Saturday.
It will be interesting to see if the Habs call up a forward from the Laval Rocket for the game. Since Michael Pezzetta was only given 3:50 of ice time in Utah, it seems obvious that the coach hasn’t got a great deal of faith in him even though he keeps saying how good of a teammate he is. Emil Heineman isn’t that easy to replace apparently.
Related: Who Should Be Called Up To Help?
Tonight’s tilt will be the 145th between the two sides and the Habs have a 80-40-21-3 record. The Stars have won seven out of the last 10 duels, including the last two games.
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