{"id":416635,"date":"2026-01-19T21:24:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-19T21:24:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/416635\/"},"modified":"2026-01-19T21:24:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T21:24:13","slug":"gameday-25-canadiens-vs-avalanche","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/416635\/","title":{"rendered":"Gameday 25: Canadiens vs Avalanche"},"content":{"rendered":"

Never a dull moment with the Montreal Canadiens\u2026<\/p>\n

Montreal got word last night that Brendan Gallagher and Sami Niku have entered the NHL covid-19 protocol. The players will be monitored close by team doctors and following the guidelines and protocols set by the NHL.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re waiting for the tests results from this morning, but they\u2019ll be out tonight,\u201d said head coach Dominique Ducharme.<\/p>\n

Neither player is feeling any symptoms. It\u2019s possible that their test results were false positives.<\/p>\n

Gallagher has four goals and 10 points in 29 games this season.<\/p>\n

Niku has just three assists in nine games.<\/p>\n

Reinforcements on the way<\/p>\n

The Cananadiens will get some healthy bodies back in their lineup. Mathieu Perreault, Brett Kulak and Chris Wideman will all return from injury against the Colorado Avalanche.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s how the Montreal Canadiens are expected to line up against the Colorado Avalanche tonight at the Bell Centre<\/p>\n

Forwards<\/p>\n

Tyler Toffoli \u2013 Christian Dvorak \u2013 Josh Anderson<\/p>\n

Arturri Lehkonen \u2013 Nick Suzuki\u00a0 \u2013 Jake Evans<\/p>\n

Jonathan Drouin \u2013 Ryan Poeling \u2013 Joel Armia<\/p>\n

Michael Pezzetta \u2013 Mathieu Perreault \u2013 Cole Caufield<\/p>\n

Defenceman<\/p>\n

Ben Chiarot \u2013 David Savard<\/p>\n

Brett Kulak \u2013 Jeff Petry<\/p>\n

Alexander Romanov \u2013 Chris Wideman<\/p>\n

Goalies<\/p>\n

Jake Allen<\/p>\n

Samuel Montembeault<\/p>\n

Will the Colorado Avalanche be angry?<\/p>\n

The Colorado Avalanche were embarrassed in their game last night against the Toronto Maple Leafs.\u00a0<\/a> The Maple Leafs took advantage of some suspect goaltending from Jonas Johansson and questionable defense. Darcy Kuemper was declared out with an upper-body injury right before the game. Not ideal for a team beginning a five game road trip.<\/p>\n

Kuemper will remain on the road trip but Colorado will have to once again have to go with Johansson in goal and emergency backup Jeff Alexander.<\/p>\n

Nathan Mackinnon returned from injury recording two assists but was overshadowed by Auston Matthews of the Maple Leafs who had a hat-trick.<\/p>\n

Forwards<\/p>\n

Gabriel Landeskog \u2013 Nathan Mackinnon \u2013 Miko Rantanen<\/p>\n

Valeri Nichushkin \u2013 Nazem Kadri \u2013 Andre Burakovsky<\/p>\n

Nicolas Aube-Kubel \u2013 Alex Newhook \u2013 Logan O\u2019Connor<\/p>\n

Darren Helm \u2013 Tyson Jost \u2013 Jayson Megna<\/p>\n

Defencemen<\/p>\n

Devon Toews \u2013 Cale Makar<\/p>\n

Bowen Byram \u2013 Samuel Girard<\/p>\n

Jack Johnson \u2013 Erik Johnson<\/p>\n

Goalies<\/p>\n

Jonas Johansson<\/p>\n

Jeff Alexander<\/p>\n

Betting Odds<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to see the Colorado Avalanche dropping back to back games regardless of who\u2019s in goal. Not only did they lose last night, but they were awful in just about every aspect of the game.\u00a0 It\u2019s not happening again. Take the Avs -1.5 for a 2.36 payout at spreads.ca<\/a>.<\/p>\n

NOTES<\/p>\n

Best player on a bad team: Canadiens\u2019 Forward Nick Suzuki is the Molson Cup recipient for the month of November. In 14 games last month, he led the Canadiens with four goals and added six assists for 10-points.
\nPunch from the backend: Avs\u2019 defenceman Cale Maker was the third star for two straight weeks. He leads all NHL defenseman in goals (nine) and point per game (1.18) while ranking third in points with 20. Makar scored in five straight games from Nov.17-26\u2026 So watch out.<\/p>\n

\t\t\"avatar\"<\/p>\n

\t\tMarc has been covering the Habs for over a decade. He previously worked for Journal Metro, The Athletic, The … More about Marc Dumont<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Never a dull moment with the Montreal Canadiens\u2026 Montreal got word last night that Brendan Gallagher and Sami…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":416636,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5116],"tags":[193,183,192,144,5277,3589,5,21,4],"class_list":["post-416635","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-colorado-avalanche","tag-avalanche","tag-betting","tag-colorado","tag-colorado-avalanche","tag-coloradoavalanche","tag-game-day","tag-hockey","tag-montreal-canadiens","tag-nhl"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115923875645445882","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416635","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=416635"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416635\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/416636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=416635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=416635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=416635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}