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Tonight’s visitors at the Bell Centre, the New York Islanders are currently 11th in the standings and right in the middle of the playoffs race. The Islanders were taking on the Bruins last night and lost in the shootout, which stopped a four-game winning streak.

Montreal better have a good start to the game as the Islanders have scored 27 first period goals so far this season while the Canadiens’ have only scored 17. Tonight’s tilt will be the first of two meetings between the two sides this season. This will also be the 178th time they take on each other. Montreal has the lead in the lifetime series 96-57-15-9, if you take playoffs into account, this will be the 200th game in which Montreal and New York have faced-off. The Islanders have won the last three games between the two teams but the last ten games have been evenly split.

Samuel Montembeault will be in net for a second consecutive game, meaning Jake Allen and Cayden Primeau won’t have seen any action in the last week. Montembeault has got a 2.18 GAA and a .932 SP in six games against the Islanders so far and seems like the best option considering Jake Allen’s stats against tonight’s visitors are underwhelming to say the least (4.46 GAA and .855 SP).

Earlier this week, Emil Heineman was called up from the Laval Rocket, but his presence in the line-up has yet to be confirmed. If he was to play, it would be his first NHL game. For the last two days, Jake Evans did not take part in practice as he had therapy days. His health status will have an influence on tonight’s line-up for certain. Yesterday at practice, Jesse Ylonen took over his spot on the second line while Heineman skated on the fourth line.

The game is set for 7:00 PM and since it's Christmas at the Bell Centre tonight, expect the first few thousand fans to get a free Montreal Canadiens' ornament.

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