Let’s do it all over again! This is not a sense
of deja vu you are feeling. For the second time in five nights, the Montreal
Canadiens play host to the New York Islanders at the Bell Centre. The two teams
met last Thursday night, with Montreal winning 5-1. In a scheduling oddity, this
will be the third meeting in a row for Montreal against a New York based team on
home ice.
The Canadiens (5-5-0) have 10 points to show for this October and sit 9th in the
Eastern Conference. The Islanders (1-4-4) currently are stuck on 6 points and
13th in the Conference. The Canadiens are currently on a three game winning
streak while New York have lost two in a row.
Rewind:
The two teams are coming off very different outcomes in their previous matches,
both played on Saturday night. The Isles are coming off a 3-2 home loss in
overtime to the Washington Capitals. Brooks Laich clinched the victory for the
Capitals in overtime. Dwayne Roloson was saddled with the loss, even with the
Islanders outshooting the Capitals 30-24. Matt Moulson still leads the way with
8 points for the Islanders.
Montreal on the other hand also went to overtime on Saturday. The Habs, lead by
hat trick hero Mike Cammalleri came back in exciting fashion to beat the New
York Rangers 5-4. During the second period the Canadiens were down 4-2 and
clawed their way back to force the game into overtime, before Cammalleri scored
the dramatic game winner.
Lineup News:
Tonight’s game versus the Islanders brings to an end a 6 game home stand for
Montreal. The Canadiens go into tonight with a 3-2-0 record and would like to
make it 4 wins before heading off to Pittsburgh. Carey Price will be watching
this one from the bench again this evening as Jaroslav Halak appears ready to
make his fourth straight start in goal. In other lineup news it looks as though
Andrei Kostitsyn will be playing on the fourth line alongside Greg Stewart and
Kyle Chipchura. This is no doubt a strong message being sent by Jacques Martin
about how he feels regarding Kostitsyn’s play so far this season. On a negative
note, it looks as though Glen Metropolit will be joining Markov and O’Byrne in
the pressbox. Metropolit has been diagnosed with the flu. This allows for
Stewart to get back into the lineup.
Closing thoughts:
The Canadiens cannot afford to take the Islanders lightly tonight. The previous
two meetings between the teams has seen Montreal beat the Islanders 5-1. There
is no doubt that New York will be looking for revenge tonight. With Metropolit
out of the lineup and Kostitsyn on the fourth line, the team will have to pull
together and play smart discipline hockey. Jacques Martin has done a terrific
job coaching this newly assembled group of players and it showed on Saturday
night against the Rangers.
The game time is 7:30pm ET and can be seen on RDS (HD) and MSG Plus (HD)