Playing some of their best hockey of the season, the Columbus Blue Jackets will try to keep rolling when they host the Montreal Canadiens on Wednesday.
After a nightmarish 1-9-4 stretch threatened to essentially end the Blue Jackets’ season before it started, Columbus has rebounded in strong fashion. The Jackets have followed up that 14-game slide with a 3-1-0 record in their last four games.
Monday’s 5-2 victory over the Boston Bruins saw the Jackets tally 40 shots (their third-highest total of the season), and build a 4-0 lead before Boston even got on the scoreboard in the third period.
Though the Bruins entered Monday’s game tied for the NHL lead in points, Blue Jackets coach Pascal Vincent didn’t consider the result an upset.
“The intensity I’ve seen from those guys, and the way we’ve been playing for quite some time now, it’s impressive but I’m not surprised,” Vincent said. “Let’s put it this way, I’m not surprised that they came together today, the way they’ve played. And everybody chipped in.”
The Canadiens have also been trying to find a more consistent level of play, but the Habs couldn’t rise to the challenge of a tougher opponent in their last game. Montreal had a season-low 18 shots in Saturday’s 4-0 loss to the Los Angeles Kings, often looking overmatched against the Stanley Cup contenders.
“You get better at something, and then you slip somewhere else,” Montreal coach Martin St. Louis said, discussing the challenges faced by his young team. “It’s constantly trying to improve … I feel we’ve done a good job at that, and I feel our team is a better team than we were 20 games ago.”
Columbus is the last stop on a five-game road trip that has seen the Canadiens post a 2-2-0 record.
Sam Montembeault will start on Wednesday, St. Louis announced. The Habs have rotated between Montembeault, Jake Allen and Cayden Primeau for the last few weeks, perhaps as something of a showcase. Rumors have swirled that the Edmonton Oilers are exploring a trade for one of the Canadiens’ goaltenders.
Because Spencer Martin faced the Bruins for the Blue Jackets, regular starting goalie Elvis Merzlikins should be back in net against Montreal. Merzlikins has looked sharp in posting a .940 save percentage over his last three games.
Monday’s contest marked the first time in NHL history that four Russian players (Dmitri Voronkov, Ivan Provorov, Yegor Chinakhov and Kirill Marchenko) scored for one team in the same game.
Marchenko’s third-period tally came on the power play, an all-too-rare occurrence for the Blue Jackets this season. Columbus ranks near the bottom of the NHL in power-play percentage, and the Jackets are only 3-for-47 with the extra attacker over their last 16 games.
As cold as the power-play unit has been, the Blue Jackets’ penalty killers are among the league’s best. Over that same 16-game span, opponents have scored only two goals in 40 power plays against Columbus.
This elite penalty-kill presents an added obstacle for the Habs, who are 0-for-17 on the power play in their last six games.
The Canadiens won the first meeting of the season between the two teams, as Cole Caufield scored in overtime for a 4-3 victory over the Blue Jackets in Montreal on Oct. 26.
