GAME DAY | Blue Jackets – Canadiens: Preview, Lines, Goalies, TV, Fantasy
Jordan Lambe
Pre-game Notes and Quotes
Max Pacioretty on the Canadiens’ heartbreaking loss to the Devils on Saturday night: “Those things happen, but they shouldn’t happen to us. We don’t exactly know why. We felt like we had them in a good place, up a goal with 22 seconds left and their goalie pulled, it falls on everyone on the team, not just one guy. Now we have to bounce back from it and learn to be better.”
Blue Jackets forward Brandon Dubinsky will return to the Jackets’ lineup Tuesday night, as he has finished up his one game suspension for a cross-check on Sidney Crosby.
It has been a rough few days for Canadiens fans everywhere as it was announced that reining Vezina, Hart and Ted Lindsey trophy winner, Carey Price, will be out at least six weeks with a suspected knee injury.
Marc Bergevin, Canadiens’ GM, had the following to say about the loss of their star goaltender: “When you lose a key player it’s always going to have side effects, it’s going to hurt your team, but I believe in our players’ character to step up and weather the storm,”
The Canadiens are now riding a four game winning streak (while scoring 16 goals in the process), and have won 5 of their last six.
The Canadiens place fifth in the league in goals against, with 56 in their first 25 games. The Blue Jackets’ defensive game has not been nearly as reliant this season, as they have allowed 76 goals against in their first 25 games.
The Canadiens are in first place in the NHL in the goals for category, with 88 over their first 25 games. The Blue Jackets’ offense has not been nearly as successful, as they are in 18th place in the NHL with a total of 60 goals over their first 25 games this season.
Matchup
Bell Centre, Montreal, QC. | December 1, 7:30 PM ET | TV: RDS, SNE, FS-O
2015-16 statistics
BLUE JACKETS
CANADIENS
20 (15th)
Points (Eastern Con. rank)
39 (1st)
10-15-0
Record
18-4-3
4-7-0
Home
9-2-2
6-8-0
Road
9-2-1
6-4-0
Last 10
6-2-2
2.40
G/G
3.48
3.04
GA/G
2.20
17.9
PP%
23.9
81.1
PK%
8.2
47.3
CF%*
53.5
48.3
CF60*
56.3
53.9
CA60*
48.9
*Advanced statistics: Score adjusted, even strength. CF%: Corsi for percentage of total CF60: Corsi For/60 minutes CA60: Corsi Against/60 minutes (via War on Ice)
Projected forward lines, defense pairings and goaltenders
As you can see from the numbers below, none of the Blue Jackets have eye-popping offensive numbers on the road this season. If there is one player to keep an eye on though, it is Sergei Bobrovsky. Bobrovsky has won 8 of his past 11 games (remember the Blue Jackets only have 10 wins this season) and has averaged a 0.938 SV% over that span. Not to mention that in those 11 games, Bobrovsky has only allowed more than two goals twice. While Bobrovsky’s numbers versus the Canadiens in his career are about average (2.64 GAA, 0.915 SV%, 0 SO and a 5-3-0 record in 8 games), his performance this year when properly rested has been spectacular. In the 12 games Bobrovsky has played this season with 2 days of rest he has accumulated a 10-2-0 record with 2 SO, a 1.17 GAA and 0.962 SV%. It is always a risk starting a goaltender who is facing a top 5 offensive unit (let alone THE top offense), but I predict this game will be a low scoring one (that the Canadiens will win). To add to my prediction, I think Bobrovsky have a good night for all you fantasy managers who stuck with him through his rough start (or bought low on him when he was struggling).
One quick note for all the daily fantasy hockey league people out there: Max Pacioretty has 8 points (5 goals) in 7 career games versus the Blue Jackets. Also, he has a total of 32 shots over that same 7 game span. This adds up to a 4.5 shots per game rate and is much higher than his 3.21 career rate, or even his 3.78 rate last season.
Top scorers for the Blue Jackets on the road this season are:
Scott Hartnell (with 9 points in 14 games).
David Savard (with 8 points in 14 games)
Brandon Dubinsky (with 7 points in 11 games)
Top scorers for the Canadiens at home this season are:
Max Pacioretty, (12 points in 13 games)
Brendan Gallagher, David Desharnais and Tomas Plekanec (with 11 points in 12, 13 and 13 games respectively)
Tomas Fleischmann (with 10 points in 13 games)
Player stats retrieved from War on Ice, NHL.com profiles and Yahoo Sports
