Canadiens on Predators: Five Things You Need to Know

The Canadiens are on a two-game losing streak after losing a 4-1 decision at home to Colorado on Thursday.

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Here are five things to know about the Canadiens-Predators game at Bridgestone Arena on Saturday (7 pm, SNE, City, TVA Sports, TSN-690 Radio, 98.5 FM).

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The match: This is the second of two meetings between these teams this season and the Canadiens have the upper hand after beating the Predators 6-3 at the Bell Center on November 20. Ryan Poehling scored his first two goals of the season in that game. It’s one of six wins this season for Montreal, which is seventh in the Atlantic Division with a 6-17-2 record. The Canadiens are on a two-game losing streak after losing a 4-1 decision at home to Colorado on Thursday. The Predators, who are close to a playoff spot in the Central Division with a 12-10-1 record, lost to Boston 2-0 at home on Thursday.

The goalkeepers: Carey Price was on the ice Friday morning working with goalkeeping coach Eric Raymond, but it didn’t look like he was close to rejoining the team. That means Jake Allen will continue in the role of Iron Man. Allen has given up eight goals in his last three starts, but lost two of those games because the Canadiens gave him no offensive support. He is 5-11-1 with an average of 2.96 goals against and a .907 save percentage. Juuse Saros, who is one of the NHL’s shortest goalkeepers at 5-foot-11, is 10-8-1 on the season with a 2.34 GAA and .923 save percentage.

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Petry joins the disabled list: The Canadiens headed to Nashville on Friday without defender Jeff Petry. He has averaged more than 23 minutes per game, but has struggled this season and is believed to have been playing with a persistent injury. He is the fourth player the Canadiens have lost this week. Brendan Gallagher and defender Sami Niku have tested positive for COVID-19 and are in quarantine for 10 days. Josh Anderson, the team’s top scorer, suffered an upper body injury Thursday and the team said he will be out of action for two to four weeks. The Canadiens have called up defenseman Corey Schueneman from the Laval Rocket. Normally, Xavier Ouellet would be the next up, but he is injured.

The numbers are depressing: Going into this season, the Canadiens knew they were going to struggle on defense without Carey Price, Shea Weber and Phil Danault, but they were hoping to compensate with a fast team beefed up for some extra firepower. It hasn’t worked that well.

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Sniper Mile Hoffman has been sidelined with back problems and Cole Caufield, who was touted as the rookie of the year favorite, struggled and spent some time at Laval. The offensive frustration is reflected in the statistics. The Canadiens are ranked 29th in goals per game, at 2.24, and the power play is ranked 28th, with a 13 percent success rate.

Duchene, Granlund leads the predators: Matt Duchene has regained his scoring touch in Nashville. He leads the Predators in goals with 13, including a natural hat trick against the Canadiens. He has 17 points, six goals and 11 assists, in 20 career games against Montreal. The Predators’ leading scorer is Mikael Granlund with five goals and 25 points, one more than Duchene. Roman Josi, who is the favorite for the Norris Trophy in an nhl.com poll published on Friday, has seven goals and 20 points, while Filip Forsberg has 10 goals. Nashville has won at least one point in 15 of its last 17 meetings with Montreal (11-2-4) and has only lost twice in regulation since January 15, 2009. The Predators are 7-4-1 against Montreal at home. .

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Reference-montrealgazette.com

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