The Montreal Canadiens could be out to settle a score or two on Saturday night at the Bell Centre.

Nick Cousins might want to keep his head up because Montreal defenceman Arber Xhekaj told a handful of reporters after practice in Brossard on Friday that nobody has forgiven him for the slash by the Ottawa Senators winger on Habs winger Ivan Demidov on Sept. 30 in Quebec City.

Cousins was thrown out of the game and given a $2,100 fine by the NHL’s department of player safety the next day. The Habs haven’t exactly let that incident go because they felt internally that the punishment by the NHL didn’t fit the crime.

“We remember what happened,” rugged Canadiens defenceman Xhekaj told Jonathan Bernier of Le Journal de Montreal on Friday about the slash by Cousins. “Nobody likes dirty tricks like that.”

Cousins probably will be too busy playing on the top line with Tim Stutzle and Drake Batherson to worry about Xhekaj, but it’s a subplot nonetheless.

The slash by Cousins was part of what turned out to be a free-for-all at the Videotron Centre. When the final horn sounded, the Senators and Habs had piled up 150 minutes in penalties, but Cousins didn’t play in the next pre-season game on Oct. 2, so he hasn’t faced them since.

That’s why Xhekaj had this date circled on his calendar because nothing happened in that second exhibition game.

“I don’t know if we’ll pick things up where we left off in Quebec. It was pretty crazy,” Xhekaj said. “But it will definitely be more intense than the following game. It was the last pre-season game. Everyone wanted to get through the pre-season schedule without getting injured.”

Not only did that game in Quebec City make people wonder what a playoff series between the Senators and Canadiens would be like, it also confirmed for Steve Staios, the club’s president of hockey operations and general manager, that he had to get more toughness for coach Travis Green.

Staios already had been scouring the league for some muscle, but acquired Kurtis MacDermid from the New Jersey Devils only 48 hours after the ugly loss to the Habs in the exhibition game. Nobody in the Ottawa organization wants to see those kinds of antics during the regular season.

MacDermid has suited up for only five of the club’s 12 games in October, but he absolutely has to play in this one, otherwise, it would leave many wondering why the Senators acquired him. He was one of only a few players on the ice Friday in Ottawa before the club left for Montreal.

The Senators weren’t about to offer up any bulletin board material on Friday, but they know this will be a tough game.

“It’s always physical against them,” centre Shane Pinto said. “It’s a rivalry for sure, going back to the pre-season. Saturday night in Montreal, it’s going to be a cool atmosphere and we’re excited for it.”

The Senators and Habs are two up-and-coming teams in the Atlantic Division. Both clubs have gone through long, and difficult rebuilds, but were able to get back to the playoffs last spring.

They seem to bring out the best in each other, which is why so many of these games are hard-fought battles. Mind you, this time it will be different because the Senators don’t have captain Brady Tkachuk in the lineup, and he is loathed by fans of the Habs.

“It’s two teams on a similar path,” Pinto said of the contentious atmosphere of these games. “We have a younger team, they have a younger team, and it’s just part of it. I don’t think it’s going to change from here on out.

“Tomorrow’s game is pretty exciting. They’ve been playing well and we’ve been getting going here. It will be a good test.”

Montreal defenceman Jayden Struble says the two teams just don’t like each other, which is what makes the games so competitive.

“Here, nobody likes the Senators and they don’t like us,” said Struble. “When the hatred is mutual, it always makes for good games.”

“I love playing against them. They’re always physical and intense games. They’re constantly on our guys, trying to wear us down. You have to be able to withstand it and play that way too.”

Xhekaj was asked why the Senators-Canadiens rivalry is so good, even though the teams have not met in the playoffs since 2015.

“We see them so often,” Xhekaj said. “We’re two young teams trying to make a name for ourselves and become Stanley Cup contenders.

“Our rebuilding processes are pretty much at the same stage. So, we are two teams that don’t really like each other.”

Whether anything will actually happen remains to be seen, but the producers of Slap Shot may want to keep an eye on these 60 minutes.

bgarrioch@postmedia.com