The Canadiens will try to string together a second consecutive win for the second time this young season as the Sharks and Macklin Celebrini visit the Bell Centre. It will be a second game in 24 hours for Ryan Warsofsky’s men, who fell 3-1 to the Leafs in Toronto last night. Celebrini and Stenberg failed to get on the scoresheet and will certainly be looking to bounce back tonight!
After sweeping the two-game series against the Sharks in 2024-25 with 4-3 wins at the SAP Center in San Jose and 4-3 in overtime at the Bell Centre, the #TurnItAllTeal returned the favour to Martin St-Louis’s men last season by winning both games 7-5 in San Jose and 4-2 in Montreal. Samuel Montembeault picked up both wins in 2024-25, while Jakub Dobes suffered both losses last season.
Jakub Dobes will get the start tonight and will try to beat the Sharks for the first time in his young career. He currently sits at 0-2 with a 4.67 goals-against average and an .813 save percentage in two games. The #75 hasn’t tasted victory since the very first game of the season against the Leafs on September 29. This season he is 1-2-1 with a 4.63 GAA and an .842 save percentage.
I’m not surprised to see Dobes get the start tonight, but I don’t like the decision. Personally, I would have preferred to see Jacob in net tonight since he’s been winning while Jakub is still looking for his game. I understand that if Dobes hadn’t started tonight, he wouldn’t have played for nine days before facing the Blackhawks on Friday. However, in my humble opinion, wins are more important right now. That said, this doesn’t mean Dobes won’t have a good game and pick up his second win of the season. We’ll see!
Speaking of seeing the action, I’ll be able to follow it very closely tonight as I’ll be at the game with my son. After attending two preseason games, this will be my first regular-season game of the year. That said, it definitely won’t be my last.
Adam Engstrom will be back in the lineup in place of David Reinbacher, not because the latter had a bad game, but because MSL simply wants both young defensemen to get reps and not sit too long.
By the numbers:
Nick Suzuki has recorded at least one point in four consecutive games against the Sharks, tallying 3 goals and 2 assists during that stretch. On the visitors’ side, Macklin Celebrini has 4 goals and 5 assists in 4 career games against the Habs.
Projected lines for the Canadiens:
Cole Caufield -- Nick Suzuki -- Juraj Slafkovsky
Chris Kreider -- Alex Newhook -- Josh Anderson
Zachary Bolduc -- Phillip Danault -- Alexandre Texier
Kirby Dach -- Jake Evans -- Oliver Kapanen
Lane Hutson -- Noah Dobson
Kaiden Guhle -- Alexandre Carrier
Arber Xhekaj -- Adam Engstrom
Jakub Dobes
Jacob Fowler
Season prediction: 5-3
Guaranteed win: 1-0
Tonight’s prediction:
SJS – 3
MTL – 5
With that, have a good rest of your day everyone and enjoy the game tonight.