On Saturday, the Habs will begin their season
longest 7-game road trip with a stop on Long Island. Fresh off a 3-1 loss
to Minnesota, the Habs will be looking to end a 5-game losing skid and will be
welcoming All-Star defenceman Andrei Markov back to the lineup. Meanwhile,
the Islanders are coming off a 5-2 loss in the 2nd half of their home-and-home
series with their crosstown rivals, the New York Rangers.
One can’t help but wonder if we’ll see Jaroslav
Halak (6-5-0, 2.91 GAA, .902 SV%) in goal after Carey Price played in back to
back games on Wednesday and Thursday, both losses in which at least one "soft"
goal was allowed. For the Islanders, Martin Biron (2-9-2, 3.33 GAA, .898
SV%) is likely to get the start (though unconfirmed) after Dwayne Roloson played
both ends of the Battle of New York.
|
Stat Zone |
Scoring Leaders |
Montreal |
NY Islanders |
| Goals | Mike Cammalleri (18) | Tavares/Moulson (15) |
| Assists | Tomas Plekanec (28) |
Kyle Okposo (17) |
| Points | Tomas Plekanec (34) | John Tavares (27) |
| +/- | Mike Cammalleri (+10) |
Jack Hillen (+7) |
| PIMS | Paul Mara (34) | Tim Jackman (66)* |
* – player is injured
Team Stats |
Montreal |
NY Islanders |
| Goals per game | 2.39 (28th) | 2.49 (24th) |
Goals Allowed per game |
2.83 (16th) |
3.11 (26th) |
| Powerplay | 20.0% (12th) | 17.3% (24th) |
Penalty Kill |
83.4% (8th) |
76.7% (28th) |
On the injury front, as noted earlier, Markov
is expected to return to the Canadiens lineup and will play alongside Ryan
O’Byrne; Marc-Andre Bergeron moves up front. Roman Hamrlik and Brian
Gionta are both on the trip, Hamrlik has an outside chance at playing while
Gionta is still a week or so away. Benoit Pouliot played his first game on
his conditioning stint on Friday and remains day-to-day. For the
Islanders, Rick DiPietro suffered a setback in his comeback and is shelved
indefinitely once more. Tough guy Tim Jackman, along with Doug Weight and
Sean Bergenheim are all expected to be out until the end of December, while
Radek Martinek is done for the year with an ACL tear.
Puck drop is at 7:00 PM EST and can be seen on
CBC, RDS, and MSG Plus, all available in high definition.