Game 49: Montreal Canadiens @ Ottawa Senators

Start time: 7:00 PM EST / 4:00 PM PST
In Canada: CityTV, Sportsnet East (English), TVA Sports (French)
Streaming: ESPN+, Sportsnet+

Perhaps one day of rest wasn’t enough for the Montreal Canadiens to recover from their stretch of five games in seven days. They should have had the energy advantage in the third period of Thursday’s game given that the Buffalo Sabres had played the night before, but that didn’t end up being the case as the Habs only managed eight shots in the final frame and were outscored 2-0. It wound up being a four-point period as instead of extending their lead in the standings over the Sabres to seven points, it’s now down to an uncomfortable three.

Montreal has had another day off as it prepares for the final game of this road trip in Kanata. The Habs’ game on Hockey Day in Canada will be played versus the Ottawa Senators, the third of four meetings between the teams after splitting the first two. Montreal doesn’t yet have a win on this road trip, and will try to prevent this from becoming the first journey of two games or more away from the Bell Centre that finishes without one.

The Habs are set to get the boost of not just a pair of fresh legs, but a player who can be tasked with the difficult minutes versus the Senators’ top players. Jake Evans is ready to return after missing 13 games following a knee-on-knee collision with Pittsburgh Penguins forward Justin Brazeau. Montreal did well to go 7-3-3, with nine of those games played on the road, without Evans in the lineup, but his return couldn’t come at a better time with the Habs in a bit of slump with a 1-2-1 mark over their last four.

Tale of the Tape

Canadiens
Statistics
Senators

26-15-7
Record
22-19-5

49.4% (21st)
Expected-goal share
53.9% (5th)

3.33 (5th)
Goals per game
3.22 (12th)

3.23 (22nd)
Goals against per game
3.33 (27th)

23.4% (8th)
PP%
22.7% (9th)

79.0% (18th)
PK%
72.4% (30th)

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

Cole Caufield (22)
Most goals
Tim Stützle (20)

Lane Hutson (39)
Most assists
Tim Stützle (27)

Nick Suzuki (52)
Most points
Tim Stützle (47)

In one of his final games before his injury, Evans had been given the job of shadowing Connor McDavid at the Bell Centre, on the ice for 11 of the league’s top star’s five-on-five minutes. Montreal outscored the Oilers 1-0 in those head-to-head minutes, and held McDavid to just a secondary power-play assist on the night. Ottawa doesn’t have a McDavid who needs to be closed down, but they do have Tim Stützle who has been writing his name on a scoresheet with about the same game-to-game consistency. Ottawa’s leader in goals and assists just enjoyed a 13-game point streak, and has points in both games versus Montreal this season.

Stützle has recently gone cold, however, ending that 13-game run with a three-game drought during one of the Senators’ worst parts of the season both on and off the ice. It saw the Senators suffer their first four-game losing streak, further reducing their odds of making the playoffs this year. They come into this game seven points behind the Boston Bruins for the final wild-card spot and 10 back of Montreal. They do enter this game coming off consecutive wins, but with those opponents being the worst clubs in each conference — a near 2-1 defeat of the Vancouver Canucks and then an 8-4 win over a New York Rangers team that has completely quit on the 2025-26 season — it’s not exactly a convincing argument that they’ve turned things around.

You can’t fault their effort level for their recent poor results. The Senators are one of the hardest-working teams in the league and have the fifth-highest expected-goal share to show for it. They’re even converting that into plenty of goals, ranking 12th in the league in goals per game and holding one of the best power plays. Ottawa’s issue this year has been allowing opponents to score too many goals, with their goaltending conspiring against their otherwise solid play.

Nowhere is that felt more than on their 30th-ranked penalty kill that comes into this match having allowed five goals in the past four games. Evans will do his part to contain Ottawa’s power play. It will be up to the more offensively gifted players on the team to replicate what they did versus Buffalo two days ago with some power-play offence versus a beleaguered Leevi Merilainen to put an end to this mini slump.