The Need To Knows
- The Time: 4:00 pm PT / 7:00 pm ET
- The Place: Bell Centre (or for the French among us, Centre Bell) in Montréal, Québec
- Where to Watch: KHN, KONG, ESPN+ (out of network)
- Where to Listen: Kraken Audio Network on KJR 93.3
Know Your Enemy
The Montréal Canadiens are still in the process of their rebuild, but strides seem to be taking shape. Young players such as Juraj Slafkovský (currently injured, though) and Lane Hutson are starting to come into their own, and the Canadiens took a big swing in bringing over Patrik Laine. Now, Laine has yet to play a regular season game with the Canadiens after sustaining a knee sprain during spring training, and initial diagnosis predicted that he would be out two-to-three months. There is a chance upon his return, though, that Laine could add some additional fire power to a roster that’s still learning and developing into a winning culture. In fact, as said in the above-linked report about Laine’s injury, coach Martin St. Louis saw it as a positive sign in the direction of the team’s rebuild that Laine seemed excited and motivated to play for the Canadiens, likening it to “we’re building a home, not just a house” for players. Considering Laine specifically requested to be traded from his previous team, the Columbus Blue Jackets, making him feel at home on the team he was traded to feels important to getting the most success out of him. However, the Canadiens still have to wait and see how it will all play out with Laine until he’s fully recovered.
The main two players to actually be keeping an eye on are Montréal’s usual suspects of the past few seasons: Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield. Suzuki has earned 11 points in the past 9 games, primarily in the form of assists, while Caufield is a goal-scoring machine with 8 in 9 games. Right now, Caufield currently sits in a three-way tie for 2nd place in the league in goals, but this is also a sentence being written before Monday night’s games are all finished, so feel free to fact check me for the most up-to-date accuracy. It’s still early in the season, so who knows if this apparent Rocket Richard bid will stay strong, but Caufield’s currently on a roll.
Speaking of being on a roll, the Canadiens have just come off of a weekend back-to-back involving travel in which they swept their opponents in the St. Louis Blues and the Philadelphia Flyers. Stringing together two wins in a row isn’t yet a streak, but there’s an underlying sense that this team could be riding high on some confidence, especially coming from its top line. Yet, this is still the rebuilding Canadiens. They share an identical 4-4-1 record with the Kraken, making them an easier opponent than the Hurricanes or the Jets.
Game Preview
Once again, the Kraken head out on the road. This time, it’s a five-game road trip that mostly sees them facing Eastern Conference (and especially Canadian) teams. The last road trip the team went on saw a successful 4 out of 6 total points, so perhaps being on the road could lend itself as a strength of this season’s iteration of the Kraken.
Something the Kraken will need to take note of when taking penalties in tonight’s contest is how the Canadiens’ power play is a fluid, ever-moving dynamic. As Arpon Basu noted for The Athletic [paywalled article], with the exception of Mike Matheson anchoring the point on the top power play unit, the other players tend to switch where in formation they line up. (And even then, Matheson is not a defenseman I’d call upon to be a stable presence. He’s too dynamic and offensive-minded for that.) While players can arrive at their familiar spots—such as Caufield’s power play goal against the Flyers the other night coming from his traditional left side—there is a constant weaving in and out to create confusion for both skaters and goaltenders. It seems to be paying some dividends for the Canadiens, as their power play percentage is currently 8th in the league at 25.8%.
The Kraken are going to need to capitalize on their strengths as a 5-on-5 team to win this game. Not only has their own power play been suffering, but Montréal can also boast to having the 3rd best penalty kill at 90.3%. Of course, hockey is unpredictable and will often laugh in the face of what statistical analysis should tell us. Maybe somehow the Kraken’s power play leaps from it’s 15.4% success rate tonight! Yet, it feels extremely likely that the best way for the Kraken to win this game is to get goals going at even strength.