NBCSN will continue its coverage of the 2016-17 campaign tonight when the Montreal Canadiens host the Chicago Blackhawks at 7:30 p.m. ET. If you want to watch the game online, you can do so here.
Don’t look now, but it looks like the Chicago Blackhawks will give the Minnesota Wild everything they can handle in the race for top spot in the Central Division. After three wins over the Wild in just over a month, Chicago has closed the gap to just one point (the Wild have a game in hand).
After dropping back-to-back games to the Ducks and Red Wings last week, the ‘Hawks managed to score a huge 4-2 win over their division rival on Sunday night.
“We knew we needed to have this one,” forward Patrick Kane told the Chicago Tribune after scoring a goal and an assist in the win over Minnesota. “If you look at our game and you ask anyone in this room, we probably feel we could play a lot better. Give the credit to Crawford. He played an unbelievable game.
“Overall, we want to be better as a team. We have 14 games left to make sure that happens (and) feel good about ourselves going into the playoffs. ... (The Wild) have a game in hand on us, but we’re right there.”
Since dropping three games in a row from Jan. 24-31, they’ve rattled off 13 wins in their last 16 games.
With Minnesota stuck in a bit of a rut, the time is now for the Chicago to make their move up the standings.
For the most part, the Canadiens have looked pretty good since the hiring of Claude Julien, but there have been a few ugly performances along the way.
Montreal is 8-3-0 since Julien took over, but those three losses have been brutal. Just take last Thursday’s 5-0 loss to Calgary as a prime example. Sure, the Flames have rattled off 10 in a row, but the Habs failed to generate many quality scoring chances, and if it’s possible, they were even worse in their own end.
They responded by scoring four unanswered goals in the third period of Sunday’s 4-1 win over Edmonton (two were empty netters). So despite the embarrassing loss to the Flames, the Canadiens can say they had a successful road trip (3-1-0).
“We get to go home with three wins out of four games (including a 4-1 win over the Rangers in New York before heading West) and it was a tough road trip to start with, everything that we’ve had to face from the flu going around the team and everything else,” said Julien, per the Montreal Gazette. “We’re pretty happy with the road trip and we’re really happy with the way it ended today.”
The Canadiens come into tonight’s game with a two-point lead over the Ottawa Senators for top spot in the Atlantic Division. The Sens have two games in hand though.