Despite losing five games in a row, the Montreal Canadiens continues among a handful of teams in the hunt for the last joke card from the eastern conference.
The Canadiens will try to keep up with the Florida Panthers on Sunday afternoon in Sunrise, FLA.
Montreal (33-30-9, 75 points) lost 4-1 to Carolina Hurricanes on Friday in the third stop of her four-game trip. Canadia also lost the night before, 6-4, to the Philadelphia Flyers.
The string of losses has kept the Canadiens in a three-way tie with Columbus Blue Jackets and New York Rangers for the final wild-card site.
“You can’t live on it,” Montreal said forward Cole Caufield. “To say that we would be in this position at the beginning of the year, we would grab it and do what it takes to be in this position. We cannot take it for granted. Each game is important. Each game counts. The next is the most important thing.”
The Canadiens, who beat Florida, 3-1, in Montreal on March 15 behind 21 rescues from Sam Montembeault, will turn around and host Panthers again on Tuesday.
The Canadiens will then meet three straight non-playoff teams, Boston Bruins, Flyers and Nashville Predators.
Montreal defender Kaiden Guhle, who returned to Carolina after missing 21 matches with a quad bike, said that the team must come back to the style that made it successful during stretches this season.
“Our Forcheck is our DNA,” said Guhle. “When we suffocate teams, I feel that we have the best advance in the league, and we have some really good riders, some big bodies coming in there and makes it really difficult for their D to make clean games, and I think it’s something we are struggling to get consistency with right now.”
Panthers (44-25-3, 91 points) have won two in a row after posting a 2-1 overtime victory against the visiting Utah Hockey Club on Friday.
That victory came five days after a 4-3 shootout victory against the Pittsburgh Penguins in the opener of the three-game home.
Florida has won seven in a row at home.
Panthers went 4-for-4 on the penalty death against Utah to improve to 35-for-39 this month.
“I think it has been quite solid all year,” Florida said Niko Mikkola about the penalty death. “(Our opponents) have got some late goals, and that has probably been the question. We need a full two minutes and to clear the puck. The past month it has worked.”
Brad Marchand played his first match for Panthers on Friday since he was traded from Bruins on March 7 and then needed time to recover from an upper body injury. The 16-year-old veteran forward had the primary assistant at the overtime winner of Sam Bennett.
“He has not played in a month now and he is going right in and dominates and controls the game,” Bennett said about Marchand. “It’s hard to do in your first game back, especially in a new team. I think he will fit here really, really nice.”
-Field Level Media
