On the surface, there’s much more at stake for the Montreal Canadiens than the Carolina Hurricanes during their matchup Friday night in Raleigh, N.C.
The Canadiens are scrambling down the stretch of the regular season to secure a spot in the postseason.
“We need results,” Montreal forward Brendan Gallagher said. “We’re not getting them. We need to rise to the challenge here.”
But the Hurricanes aren’t interested in taking a dip either as they’ll aim to avoid consecutive losses — something they haven’t experienced in more than a month.
The Hurricanes (43-24-4, 90 points) have lost two of their last three games following an eight-game winning streak. Carolina has had two days off since a 3-1 home loss to Nashville on Tuesday night.
The Canadiens (33-29-9, 75 points) have a four-game losing streak (0-2-2) after Thursday night’s 6-4 setback at Philadelphia.
“Everybody is disappointed,” Montreal coach Martin St. Louis said. “If you take a snapshot of where we are right now, it should still be fun. We just have to remind them of that.”
So getting the spirits up will be one area of emphasis for the Canadiens’ quick turnaround. They need a full group effort to get back on track.
“We need everybody,” St. Louis said. “To me, it’s a little bit of pressure vs. pleasure. You got to have fun with this, the 10 or 11 games we have left.”
Taylor Hall has been a good source of offense for Carolina. The former Hart Trophy recipient has racked up four goals across the past two games. Those are also the team’s last four goals.
Hall has been on a good stretch with 10 points (six goals, four assists) in the last nine games. He said it’s critical that both ends of the ice are taken care of properly.
“If you’re on for a goal against, you always feel a little culpable,” Hall said. “There’s something you could have done better at the end of the day.”
But for the Hurricanes, the key to their stretch drive could be if Sebastian Aho’s line can get rolling. That group has generally lagged in some recent games.
“It has been the case for a while now for our line,” Aho said. “We’re creating a bunch and getting good looks, but obviously, it doesn’t matter. Other guys have been bailing us out as of late. We’ve had some good wins as of late, but as a top line, we’ve got to produce.”
Carolina has been in flux with its lineup as winger Andrei Svechnikov has missed the past seven games with an upper-body injury. Svechnikov said Thursday that he expects to be in the lineup against Montreal.
The Hurricanes will have Frederik Andersen in the crease.
The Canadiens thumped the Hurricanes 4-0 on Feb. 25 at Montreal in the first meeting of the season. Patrik Laine and captain Nick Suzuki each had one goal and two assists and Sam Montembeault made 20 saves in that game.
Laine recorded his 18th goal of the season Thursday.
Montreal and Carolina also will meet at the end of the regular season in less than three weeks at Montreal.
–Field Level Media
