Canadiens: Objective Playoffs – Yahoo Sports

Montreal Canadiens GM Kent Hughes gave his players their wish; he kept them all together just like captain Nick Suzuki asked. By staying put on trade deadline day, Hughes essentially rewarded his players for being in the mix as the Habs’ brass wanted them to be in March. Now, though, unless they sign them to contract extensions, Joel Armia, Christian Dvorak, and David Savard will all skate away into the sunset, and the Canadiens won’t get anything for them. Hopefully, the upcoming push to the playoffs will be worth it.

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That push starts Saturday night as the Canadiens will take on the Calgary Flames for the second and final time this season. When the two teams met in Montreal in November, the Albertans skated away with a 3-2 overtime win. Samuel Montembeault made 32 saves on the 35 shots received to end his night with a .914 save percentage, but it wasn’t enough to beat rookie sensation Dustin Wolf.

Montembeault is 0-2-1 against the Flames with a 2.69 goals-against average and a .913 SP. He’s never beaten them, but he’s played well. As for Jakub Dobes, he’s never taken on Saturday night’s host, but Martin St-Louis has confirmed he will get the start.

As for Calgary, Dan Vladar has never faced the Canadiens, while Wolf is 2-0-0 with a 2.00 GAA and a fantastic .935 SP. Considering the Flames are also in the playoffs race, my money would be Wolf getting the start on Saturday night.

Up front, Suzuki is the Canadiens’ more productive player against Calgary with 14 points in 18 games, closely followed by Patrik Laine, who has 12 in 15 games, and Dvorak rounds up the top three with 10 points in 17 tilts. Juraj Slafkovsky has a respectable four points in five games, and Cole Caufield and Lane Hutson are on six-game point streaks.

As for the Flames, two thirds of their first line love playing Montreal. Jonathan Huberdeau has 32 points in 35 games while former Toronto Maple Leafs Nazem Kadri has 24 in 41 duels.  Second liner Blake Coleman comes in third place with 14 points in 19 games.

The two sides have won five of the last 10 games, and I fully expect a big battle on Saturday night. Both teams are fighting for their playoff lives. Considering Hughes elected to keep his pending UFA, the players will want to show him that he was right to do so.

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