Game 57: Montreal Canadiens @ Winnipeg Jets

Start time: 7:00 PM EST / 4:00 PM PST
In Canada: Sportsnet
In the Canadiens regions: RDS (French)
Streaming: ESPN+, RDS, Sportsnet+

In the last four games, the Montreal Canadiens have played the Pacific Division-leading Vegas Golden Knights, a Colorado Avalanche club at the peak of the NHL, a Buffalo Sabres team on a serious charge up the standings, and a healthy Minnesota Wild squad that got back to looking like one of the true contenders over the past couple of weeks. The Canadiens went 3-0-1 over that difficult schedule, adding seven points to their total to sit at 70 on the season. The win and overtime loss versus Colorado and Minnesota, respectively, also meant they claimed five of the available eight points this year versus teams that rank first and fourth in the league standings.

When the schedule was first put together last summer, it looked like Montreal was going to play three Central Division superpowers over the span of this week. But the Winnipeg Jets, who won the Presidents’ Trophy last year, are nowhere close to that form in 2025-26. They already have more regulation losses (25) than they did all of last season (22). They’re also just 22 goals under the league-best 190 they allowed a year ago with one-third of their campaign still to play.

Whatever happened to the goalies who made last season’s rosters for the 4 Nations Face-Off has stricken Connor Hellebuyck as well. His .901 save percentage has him well off his usual level, no lower than a .920 mark in the past three seasons. That means five goals against every 50 shots this season instead of his typical four, so about one extra goal every two games. The reigning Hart Trophy-winner and back-to-back recipient of the Vezina Trophy won’t be in the running for any individual awards this season.

Their highest goals-against average since the COVID-shortened season was already going to be hard to overcome, but adding their lowest offensive output over that same period is making it tough to find any footing.

General manager Kevin Cheveldayoff is famous (or infamous depending on your point of view) for his long-term commitment to his players. As most of the prospects who’ve been in the system over the past several years could attest, the veterans have always been chosen over the youth. Winnipeg is currently the only team with an average age over 30, and maybe that’s starting to catch up with them.

Tale of the Tape

Canadiens
Statistics
Jets

31-17-8
Record
22-25-8

48.9% (23rd)
Expected-goal share
47.0% (26th)

3.43 (3rd)
Goals per game
2.87 (23rd)

3.25 (23rd)
Goals against per game
3.05 (15th)

23.6% (7th)
PP%
19.0% (20th)

76.9% (27th)
PK%
79.4% (16th)

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

Cole Caufield (32)
Most goals
Mark Scheifele (27)

Lane Hutson (48)
Most assists
Mark Scheifele (40)

Nick Suzuki (65)
Most points
Mark Scheifele (67)

Fitting the team philosophy, the big addition in the off-season was the 37-year-old Jonathan Toews. That move has helped neither the team’s average age nor its play at either end as he has 19 points on the season and team-worst -15 goal differential. Maybe most damning for the roster’s overall construction is that that point total still ranks seventh on the team scoring list.

At seventh in Montreal’s order you will find Oliver Kapanen, with almost as many goals (17) as Toews has points, and who just hit the 30-point milestone a couple of games ago. Winnipeg went for experience, while the Canadiens have embraced youth to lead them forward, and that has created a dynamic offence that continues to grow as the season progresses.

Kapanen was one of the most impressive players in Monday’s game versus Minnesota, arguably the most complete game of his career as he led the forecheck on multiple occasions where he would normally hang back and let Juraj Slafkovský and Ivan Demidov do the hard work while he found open space. It may not have come with the goals that line has produced since being put together, but he did end the game versus a contender playing its best hockey with a team-high expected-goals-for percentage of 56.8%. If he begins to play like that every night, he may help that line take off to an elite level.

Kapanen is setting himself up well to join Team Finland for the Olympics and tonight will feature the last shifts in a Canadiens jersey for him and three other members of Montreal’s top six before they don their nation’s colours. They, and the four on Winnipeg’s roster, would probably like to cruise through this game and save themselves for the tournament, but neither team can afford to look beyond this game. If the Jets want to have any hope of recovering the make the post-season, they can’t drop many more points the rest of the way. Meanwhile every point is precious in the Atlantic Division this year, with another three-point game last night as the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Sabres in overtime.

The Canadiens enter this game as the better team, both over the full season and in their recent play as the Jets have just three wins in their last nine games. Frankly, it will be disappointing if the Habs don’t turn that into a win and enter the Olympic break with a five-game points streak from a 4-0-1 record. Should they do that, they will go into the pause with no worse than the eighth-best record in the NHL.