After an eight-game winless streak, the Canadiens have bounced back and are 5-2-0 in their last seven thanks in part to their power play.
CALGARY — Here are five things you should know when the Canadiens (16-12-6) play the Calgary Flames (18-14-4) Thursday at the Scotiabank Saddledome (9 p.m., TSN2, RDS, TSN 690 Radio).
Habs on a roll: After suffering through an eight-game winless streak (0-5-3), the Canadiens are 5-2-0 in their last seven games and moved back into a playoff spot in third place in the Atlantic Division when they beat the Canucks 3-1 Tuesday night in Vancouver. During the eight-game slump, the Canadiens gave up 38 goals, an average of 4.75 per game. In the last seven games, the Canadiens have allowed 11 goals, an average of 1.57 per game. In the last seven games, the Canadiens are 5-for-12 on the power play and after going 2-for-2 against the Canucks ranked 10th in the NHL with a 21.7 per cent success rate.
Tomas Tatar scored a goal in his fourth straight game Tuesday night in Vancouver and extended his point streak to five games. He leads the Canadiens in scoring with 13-17-30 totals.
Allen McInnis /
Montreal Gazette
Hot streaks: Tomas Tatar scored a goal in his fourth straight game Tuesday night in Vancouver and extended his point streak to five games. He leads the Canadiens in scoring with 13-17-30 totals. Shea Weber also scored against the Canucks, extending his point streak to four games, and the captain ranks second in team scoring with 11-17-28 totals. After Tuesday’s game, Weber ranked third among NHL defencemen in goals, trailing John Carlson of the Washington Capitals and Dougie Hamilton of the Carolina Hurricanes, who had 12 each.
Cold streaks: Jordan Weal, who continues to get time on the power play, doesn’t have a point in the last 15 games and has 3-1-4 totals for the season, along with a team-worst minus-6 — tied with Brett Kulak and Jesperi Kotkaniemi. Weal is averaging 2:05 of power-play ice time per game. Max Domi has gone 10 games without a goal and has only two in the last 21 games. Domi does have four assists in the last three games, including two against the Canucks. Rookie Nick Suzuki has gone 12 games without a goal, while Artturi Lehkonen has gone nine games without a goal and has only one assist during that span.
Hot Flames: The Flames have scored 96 goals this season and almost half of them have come from four forwards. Elias Lindholm (14), Matthew Tkachuk (12), Johnny Gaudreau (10) and Sean Monahan (10) have combined for 46 goals and 105 points. Monahan leads the Flames in scoring with 10-18-28 totals, followed by Tkachuk (12-15-27), Gaudreau (10-17-27) and Lindholm (14-9-23). After winning their first six games under new head coach Geoff Ward, the Flames have lost their last two games while being outscored 8-1.
Cold Flame: Milan Lucic, the player Canadiens fans loved to hate when he was with the Boston Bruins, has 3-5-8 totals in 34 games with the Flames and is minus-7. The Flames acquired Lucic and a conditional third-round pick at the 2020 NHL Draft from the Edmonton Oilers on July 19 in exchange for James Neal. In 36 games with the Oilers, Neal has 15-7-22 totals. Lucic, 31, has three more seasons after this remaining on his seven-year, US$42-million contract with an annual salary-cap hit of $6 million.
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