Eric Staal skated Sunday for the first time for Montreal and is expected to make his debut Monday after completing a mandatory seven-day quarantine.
Author of the article:
Herb Zurkowsky • Montreal Gazette
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Here are five things you should know about the Canadiens-Oilers game Monday night at the Bell Centre (7 p.m., TSN2, RDS, TSN Radio-690, 98.5 FM).
The matchup: If it seems like the Oilers were just in Montreal, that assessment would be correct. Edmonton was blanked 4-0 by the Canadiens last Tuesday. It was an uninspiring performance by the visitors, who directed only 17 shots at goaltender Carey Price. Of course, it also came a night after the Oilers were in Toronto, edging the Maple Leafs in overtime. The Canadiens, meanwhile, are coming off a 6-3 home-ice loss to the Ottawa Senators on Saturday night, the defeat ending Montreal’s three-game winning streak. Edmonton (23-14-1) is second in the North Division, a tie-breaker ahead of Winnipeg, both teams with 47 points. The Oilers also are six points ahead of the fourth-place Canadiens (16-9-9).
There’s a dressing-room stall for Staal: Veteran centre Eric Staal skated Sunday for the first time as a member of the Canadiens. Although the team had the day off, the 36-year-old was on the ice at the Bell Sports Complex with a member of the team’s training staff. Acquired March 26 from Buffalo for a pair of draft choices, Staal is expected to make his Montreal debut on Monday, having completed his mandatory seven-day quarantine. He should be rejuvenated now that he has escaped purgatory playing for a lousy Sabres team. In 32 games this season, Staal has three goals and 10 points, along with a plus/minus rating of -20.
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He doesn’t drop the gloves often: It seemed odd Saturday night when defenceman and Canadiens captain Shea Weber appeared forced into a fight with Senators pest Brady Tkachuk. For starters, at 6-foot-4 and 229 pounds, not many are willing to tangle with Weber. Also, at age 35, isn’t the guy too old to be dropping the gloves? The fight, only his third since coming to Montreal for P.K. Subban, was Weber’s first since March 2020, when he fought Tampa Bay’s Mikhail Sergachev. Before that, he hadn’t duked it out with someone since the 2017 playoffs, when he scrapped with the New York Rangers’ J.T. Miller.
This much the Oilers know: Edmonton’s coming off a 3-2 victory at home Friday night against the Calgary Flames. The Oilers’ game the following night, against the visiting Vancouver Canucks, was postponed. According to reports Sunday morning, the number of positive COVID-19 cases on the Canucks has increased to more than 20 players and coaches. While the Oilers will continue on to Ottawa this week for games on Wednesday and Friday, they’re scheduled to entertain Vancouver on April 12 and 14. Those games potentially hang in the balance as of now.
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This and that: Price was beaten for five goals — the sixth was scored into an empty net — on 24 shots Saturday, although he ended up facing 32 shots in total. It marked the fifth time this season Price has surrendered five goals in a game. That’s not good. … Josh Anderson, who paced the Canadiens’ attack with two goals on Saturday, has seven two-goal games in his career — including three this season. … Tyler Toffoli, who returned to Montreal’s lineup Saturday after missing three games with a lower-body injury, scored against the Senators, giving him a team-leading 19 goals in 31 games. … Defenceman Jeff Petry, who might get some consideration for the Norris Trophy, could have removed himself from that conversation with one game. Petry, incredibly, had a plus/minus rating of -5 against Ottawa.
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The hockey-mad market, the crackling Bell Centre on a Saturday night, the Original Six franchise’s iconic logo.
The 33-year-old goaltender is also realistic.
With the Canadiens still in full rebuild mode — and two young netminders in Sam Montembeault and Cayden Primeau ready for more playing time — Allen could see the writing on the wall.
Desperate for help in their own crease, the New Jersey Devils asked Montreal about the veteran’s availability. But the team, general manager Tom Fitzgerald told reporters earlier this month, was initially on Allen’s no-trade list.
There wasn’t anything the Fredericton product disliked about the organization or city. The Devils simply appeared to have their crease set for years to come.
But when the club that finished with 112 points and made the second round of the playoffs in 2022-23 was badly hampered by poor play from Vitek Vanecek, Nico Daws and Akira Schmid — each netminder owned save percentages below .900 — the Devils circled back.
And Allen had changed his tune.
“Loved my time as a Hab,” he said of pulling on Montreal’s red, white and blue threads. “I always will cherish that. Put on probably the most special jersey in hockey, in my books. But you realize in your career, it doesn’t last forever.
“You’ve got to make decisions sometimes.”
Allen, who is signed through next season, eventually agreed to a deal that sent him to New Jersey ahead of the NHL’s March 8 trade deadline for a conditional third-round pick at the 2025 draft.
Apart from playing meaningful hockey on a team trying to claw its way back into the Eastern Conference playoff race, the swap gave him more runway to get his family settled in a new city instead of waiting to see what this summer’s crowded goalie market might bring.
“Sometimes you’ve got to be a little bit selfish,” said Allen, a Stanley Cup champion with the St. Louis Blues in 2019. “Look yourself in the mirror and wonder what’s best for you and your family.”
He’s been really good for his new team.
Allen was lights out in Tuesday’s first period against the Toronto Maple Leafs, making an eye-popping 25 saves in what would turn into New Jersey’s 6-3 victory.
So far he’s 4-2-0 with a .925 save percentage and a 2.51 goals against average in six starts for the Devils, who sit five points back of the East’s second wild-card spot.
“A real pro,” said interim head coach Travis Green.
Allen is a combined 10-14-3 in 2023-24 with a .900 save percentage and a 3.39 GAA. Across his 11 seasons with St. Louis, Montreal and now New Jersey, he’s 193-164-41 with a .908 save percentage and 2.75 GAA.
“Makes the saves we need to get some momentum back,” Devils captain Nico Hischier said. “If you have a solid goalie in the net, that makes your work easier.”
Allen is also 11-12 with a .924 and a 2.06 GAA all-time in the playoffs — a good sign for his new club should New Jersey manage to make the cut.
For now, though, he’s just enjoying being back in a post-season race.
“I thought this was a good opportunity to come in the rest of this year, play some games,” Allen said.
“It’s been a good start.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 28, 2024.
TORONTO — Auston Matthews will be a game-time decision for the Toronto Maple Leafs against the Washington Capitals at Scotiabank Arena on Thursday (7 p.m. ET; SN1, MNMT) because of an illness.
“It’s going to be on how he feels throughout the day,” Maple Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe said.
The forward did not participate in Toronto’s morning skate. Max Domi took his place as the center on a line between Tyler Bertuzzi and Mitch Marner, a right wing recovering from a high-ankle sprain sustained March 7 and will be out the next two games.
Matthews leads the NHL with 59 goals, one from becoming the ninth player in NHL history with at least two 60-goal seasons. He scored 60 in 73 games in 2021-22, when he won the Rocket Richard Trophy, Hart Trophy and Ted Lindsay Award. He had one goal and nine shots in 23:44 of a 6-3 loss to the New Jersey Devils on Tuesday, which extended his point streak to five games (four goals, seven assists).
He missed one game this season with illness, a 7-0 win against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Dec. 16.
“Of course, it’s an adjustment when your best player is out of the lineup,” Domi said, “when anybody is out of the lineup, but I think we’ve done a great job all year of guys stepping up when they have to, and we just have to continue to do that.”
Toronto defenseman Morgan Rielly will miss his second straight game with an upper-body injury.
“He just remains day to day,” Keefe said. “We’re hopeful he’s going to bounce back here. The one thing that is good is once he gets through this day or two here, it’s not going to be a lingering situation. It’s not going to be an injury that’s ongoing. Once he’s past it, he’s past it so we just need to give him some time.”
The Vancouver Canucks have placed all-star goalie Thatcher Demko on the long-term injured reserve list retroactively.
“It’s just cap related,” coach Rick Tocchet said after practice Wednesday. “We get some cap relief, that’s all it is.”
The 28-year-old netminder has been considered week to week since being sidelined with a lower-body injury midway through Vancouver’s 5-0 win over the Winnipeg Jets on March 9.
That injury designation hasn’t changed, Tocchet said.
Demko boasts a 34-18-2 record this season, with a .917 save percentage, a 2.47 goals-against average and five shutouts.
Casey DeSmith has taken over the starting job for Vancouver, going 3-2-1 since Demko’s injury. He has a .899 save percentage on the season with a 2.73 goals-against average and one shutout.
The earliest Demko could be back in the Canucks’ lineup is April 6 against the Kings in Los Angeles.
He’s expected to be a key piece as Vancouver (45-19-8) prepares for its first playoff appearance since the COVID-shortened 2019-20 campaign.
Canucks general manager Patrik Allvin also announced Wednesday that the club has called up forward Arshdeep Bains from the Abbotsford Canucks of the American Hockey League.
“I’d like to see where [Bains is] at,” Tocchet said, noting he isn’t sure whether the 23-year-old winger will slot into the lineup when the Canucks host the Dallas Stars on Thursday.
WATCH | Bains makes NHL debut
Surrey, B.C.’s Arshdeep Bains makes Canucks debut
1 month ago
Duration 2:20
Arshdeep Bains from Surrey, B.C., has made his NHL debut with the Vancouver Canucks Tuesday night against the Colorado Avalanche. As CBC’s Joel Ballard reports, it’s been a hard-fought journey for the hometown kid to the big leagues.
Bains played five games for the NHL team in February before being sent back to Abbotsford.
“He went down, he’s done a couple of things that we like, and he’s got some speed,” Tocchet said.
Vancouver may get another forward back in the lineup Thursday.
Dakota Joshua practised in a full-contact jersey on Wednesday for the first time since suffering an upper-body injury in Vancouver’s 4-2 win over the Blackhawks in Chicago on Feb. 13.
The physical winger, who’s set to become an unrestricted free agent this summer, has a career-high 26 points (13 goals, 13 assists) this season.
Sitting out injured “hasn’t been fun,” Joshua said.
“It feels like forever,” he said. “But at this point, that’s behind me and I’m moving forward.”