Canadiens at Ducks: Five Things You Need to Know

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Here are five things to know about the Canadiens-Ducks game at the Honda Center on Sunday (4 pm, TSN2, RDS, TSN-690 Radio, 98.5 FM) .

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The match: The Canadiens were unable to capitalize on their 4-0 victory in San Jose on Thursday as they lost a 5-2 decision to the Angles Kings on Saturday. Josh Anderson opened the scoring, but the Kings responded with five unanswered goals, including three on the power play. Montreal is 1-2 on the four-game road trip that concludes this game and is 2-7 on the season. The Ducks have been struggling this season and are on a two-game losing streak after losing a 5-4 decision in overtime in Las Vegas on Friday. They are currently seventh in the Pacific Division with a 2-4-3 record.

It’s Sam’s turn: This is the second half of a straight set and that means goalie Jake Allen will have a rare night off after two wildly inconsistent performances: the shutout in San Jose and Saturday’s debacle in Los Angeles. Sam Montembeault, who was hired as an insurance policy at the end of training camp, will be making his second season start and hopes are that it will be better than his first appearance. He allowed five goals in a loss at Buffalo on October 14. John Gibson, who is 2-2-2 with an average of 3.07 goals against, is expected to start for the Ducks.

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Special teams are not special: The Kings capitalized on three of their five power games on Saturday when the Canadiens fell to 30th in the NHL rankings. Canadians have killed only 64.3 percent of their penalties and only Winnipeg and Arizona have worse records. It was strange to see Phil Danault in the Kings’ power play for two of their power play goals because he is one of the players Montreal is missing from the PK along with defender Shea Weber and goalkeeper Carey Price. The Canadiens were 0-for-2 in the power play Saturday and rank 30th in the NHL with a 9.4 percent success rate. Montreal has scored just three power play goals with Mike Hoffman, Tyler Toffoli and Brendan Gallagher each scoring once.

Shooting blanks: The Canadiens are also ranked 30th in goals scored and fantasy hockey fans can tell you that there are some disappointing starts to the season. For example, Cole Caufield is second among rookies with 22 shots and sixth on ice time among rookie forwards, but he has produced only one assist and is in the longest goal drought of his life. Toffoli has one goal and a pair of assists and his shooting percentage is 5.3 percent. That’s less than the 17.7 percent from last season when he led the team in scoring. Nick Suzuki has five assists, but has yet to score a goal. Other forwards looking for their first goals include Joel Armia, Cédric Paquette and Jake Evans.

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Getzlaf looks at Selanne’s record: Ryan Getzlaf received an assist in Friday’s loss to Las Vegas and tied Teemu Selanne for the Duck’s all-time leading scorer with 988 points. Selanne, who lives in the same neighborhood as Getzlaf, was in Finland when Getzlaf tied on Friday, but plans to be in Anaheim on Sunday to congratulate Getzlaf if he sets the record. Getzlaf and Selanne were teammates from 2005 to 2014 and they combined for 114 goals. The first on October 23, 2005, against the then Phoenix Coyotes (Petr Sykora with a goal, assisted by Getzlaf and Selanne) and the last on March 24, 2014, against the Florida Panthers – (Getzlaf with a goal, assisted by Selanne and former Canadien Stéphane Robidas).

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