Less than 24 hours after their loss on Long Island, the Montreal Canadiens visit Broadway, where Martin St-Louis doesn’t want to see his squad play the Rangers against tourists.
Hot on their heels after two quick attacks by the Islanders in the first period on Saturday, the Canadians failed to capitalize on their chances for the next 40 minutes and lost 2-1. In the late afternoon at Madison Square Garden they meet an impressive team that has just used two days off.
The beginning of the game should set the tone for the game this time, for all the right reasons.
Third in the Metropolitan Division, Rangers (24-12-7) have just won their last two games and amassed 14 points in their last 10 games (6-2-2). During that series, they defeated CH 4-1 at Bell Center on January 4 thanks to a brace from Filip Chytil. They signed a fifth win in their last seven duels against the Habs.
This time the New Yorkers are likely to miss an important part. Chris Kreider is out with an upper body injury and his presence is in doubt. It was Quebec’s Alexis Lafrenière who took his front row seat with Mika Zibanejad and Kaapo Kakko in Dallas.
Speaking of cripples, in the bleu-blanc-rouge the day before, Jake Evans left the game in the closing moments of the first period after an odd clash with Brock Nelson in the face-off circle, who left the UBS Arena in a knee brace.
St-Louis, relying on a formation of seven defenders, therefore forced his 10 attackers to make short presences and Chris Wideman made some presences up front.
No update on Evans’ condition or the length of his absence was offered. No Laval recall had been announced as of Sunday morning.
Samuel Montembeault (7-7-2), author of 36 saves against the islands, could be back in goal. The other option is to give the net to Cayden Primeau, who was called up last week while Jake Allen is nursing an injury. It’s not out of the question that he’ll get his first launch since February 10, 2022.
Martin St-Louis will give an update on his training around 3pm.
The Canadiens are playing a five-game home series Tuesday.
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