Game 25: Montreal Canadiens vs. Ottawa Senators

Start time: 7:00 PM EST / 4:00 PM PST
In the Canadiens region: TSN2 (English), RDS (French)
In the Senators region: TSN5 (English), RDS (French)
Streaming: ESPN+, RDS, TSN+

The Montreal Canadiens weren’t the only team to suffer an embarrassing defeat on the weekend. A day after the Habs lost 7-2 to the Colorado Avalanche, the Ottawa Senators fell by the same margin, a 6-1 loss at the hands of the Dallas Stars. It was the first time Ottawa lost by multiple goals in over a month.

Both teams have returned from trips to play Western Conference teams. The Canadiens are home after three games, while the Ottawa Senators have this last game in Montreal to finish a season-long seven consecutive games away from Canadian Tire Centre. The most recent result may have left a lingering sour taste for the two Atlantic Division rivals, but Montreal was 2-1 on their trip, while the Senators are a respectable 3-3 on their two-week excursion.

As they come together for the second of four times this season, they sit a point apart in the standings, with Montreal both higher on the list and with a game in hand. Each team is going to want to get the win to start off a new month on the right foot.

Tale of the Tape

Canadiens
Statistics
Senators

13-8-3
Record
12-9-4

48.5% (21st)
Expected-goal share
52.6% (9th)

3.42 (4th)
Goals per game
3.04 (14th)

3.54 (28th)
Goals against per game
3.36 (25th)

23.5% (9th)
PP%
21.8% (11th)

76.5% (26th)
PK%
69.9% (31st)

1-0-0
Head-to-Head Record
0-0-1

Cole Caufield (14)
Most goals
Shane Pinto (12)

Nick Suzuki (21)
Most assists
Jake Sanderson (15)

Nick Suzuki (28)
Most points
Tim Stützle (23)

There wasn’t a great deal of offence for the Senators on the road trip, and that has been a feature of this era of the franchise. They didn’t score more than three goals in regulation in any of the six games played. That’s about what you’d expect from a team in the middle of the pack averaging 3.04 goals per game, and even that number was boosted by back-to-back seven-goal performances in late October. Jake Sanderson’s seven points lead the team on this trip; no other player has more than four. For comparison, Montreal had both Zachary Bolduc and Nick Suzuki hit five points in the three games they played, highlighting the difference in talent of the two rosters despite both just undergoing a rebuild phase.

Ottawa will hope an offensive boost comes with Brady Tkachuk back in action after missing six weeks with an injury. He’s been a reliable 30-goal-scorer for Ottawa, but his point totals have been coming down since his 83-point campaign in 2022-23. He also hasn’t had much success in Montreal recently as the Habs have held him to one assist and a -3 goal differential in three meetings over the past couple of years. That doesn’t mean he isn’t capable of producing, and still needs to be a focus of the Habs’ defence that offered little resistance to the Avalanche on Saturday.

As Tkachuk’s total offence has gone down, his power-play production has gone up, so his return will help a team that already ranks 11th in that situation. What they really need is some help when the opponent is the team with the extra player, as their penalty kill is second-worst in the NHL at 69.9%. Unless Tkachuk is going to play in net, that’s an area their goaltenders need to be better in. Ottawa actually ranks fourth-best in the league in terms of expected goals against on the penalty kill, but both starter Linus Ullmark and backup Leevi Merilainen have sub-.800 save percentages in that situation.

A meeting of clubs with power plays in the top third of the league and penalty kills in the bottom seven is a recipe for a special-teams battle, and the animosity the rivalry is getting famous for is sure to lead to penalties on both sides. Staying disciplined will be the most successful tactic for the teams in this divisional four-point game.