PREMATCH
The Montreal Canadiens will try to extend their point streak to seven games when the Toronto Maple Leafs visit their home ground on Saturday.
The Habs and the Ottawa Senators are both one point behind the Boston Bruins and the last playoff spot in the East. However, this ranking could change since the two Montreal rivals face each other in Ottawa on Saturday afternoon.
For their part, the Maple Leafs ended a three-game losing streak by winning Thursday against the New Jersey Devils and their former head coach, Sheldon Keefe. Toronto is still first in the Atlantic Division with 58 points in 46 games.
Samuel Montembeault will be the CH starting goalie for this duel. At the other end of the ice, Jospeh Woll will take his place between the posts of the Toronto net. Former Habs captain Max Pacioretty will be visiting.
-Lane Hutson will try to collect at least a point in a seventh straight game to tie his own franchise record set earlier this season. The young CH defenseman will also be able to outdistance his competitors in the fight for the Calder Trophy, namely Macklin Celebrini of the San Jose Sharks and Matvei Michkov of the Philadelphia Flyers.
During Saint Flannel’s victory against the Stars in Dallas, Hutson collected his 35th assist at the age of 20 or less. He also overtook Gilbert Delorme for second place for a defenseman in team history. Petr Svoboda is at the top with 60 assists.
With his goal against Dallas, the 29th of his career, Juraj Slafkovsky joined Guy Lafleur and Mark Hunter in sixth place in Canadiens history for the most goals before the age of 21. The players who did better than him are: Mario Tremblay (50), Stephane Richer (41), Alex Galchenyuk (37), Henri Richard (34) and Guillaume Latendresse (32).
If Patrik Laine were to score against the Maple Leafs, he could take possession of third place on the team in this regard this season. With 10 goals, the Finnish giant currently has as many as Jake Evans, Emil Heineman and Brendan Gallagher. However, he played 28 fewer games than Evans and Gallagher as well as 25 fewer games than Heineman.
