Nov. 3, 2022: Canadiens at Jets — Five things you should know
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WINNIPEG — Here are five things you should know about Thursday’s game between the Canadiens (5-5) and the Jets (5-3-1) at Winnipeg’s Canada Life Centre (8 p.m., TSN2, TSN3, RDS, TSN 690 Radio, 98.5 FM).
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End of the road: This will be the last game of a four-game road trip for the Canadiens, who had wins in Buffalo and St. Louis, followed by a 4-1 loss in Minnesota on Tuesday. Nick Suzuki scored the only goal for the Canadiens on a power play in Minnesota and he leads the team in scoring with 5-6-11 totals, followed by Cole Caufield (7-3-10) and Sean Monahan (2-4-6). Head coach Martin St. Louis said Wednesday that Samuel Montembeault will start in goal.
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Keep shooting: Caufield didn’t score against the Wild, but he had eight shots. Caufield leads the Canadiens with 39 shots, which is 15 more than Suzuki and Brendan Gallagher, who are tied for second. “I don’t think I need to tell Cole to shoot the puck,” St. Louis said with a chuckle. “I think as Cole progresses in this league he’s always going to get his shots and now he’s figuring out sometimes to be selective and is there something better? I feel he’s starting to look for that a little bit, if there’s something better, without taking his shots away from him. He’s paying attention to the whole game, not just him shooting pucks. For me what I’m really impressed with Cole is his play away from the puck right now and his compete level away from the puck. That’s progression in that department and it’s going to make him a better hockey player if he keeps doing that consistently.”
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Power play clicks: After going 1-for-24 on the power play in the first eight games, the Canadiens are 3-for-5 in the last two with three goal-scorers: Suzuki, Caufield and Juraj Slafkovsky. “Got the monkey off our back on the power play,” Suzuki said. “Took a while. It just builds confidence scoring … different guys, too. It will be nice to keep building that.”
Big minutes: The Canadiens’ Jordan Harris logged a team-high 21:10 of ice time against Minnesota. The 22-year-old defenceman ranks third on the team in average ice time with 20:48, trailing David Savard (22:15) and Kaiden Guhle (20:56). Harris has the best plus/minus differential on the Canadiens at plus-5, while Savard is minus-5 and Guhle is minus-4. Savard and Guhle are normally matched up against the opposing team’s top offensive line.
