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On the road since December 18, the Canadiens did quite well away from the Bell Centre gathering seven points out of a possible 14. However, they lost a couple of players along the way as both Christian Dvorak and December’s Molson Cup winner, Josh Anderson were sidelined. Since Montreal had a day off yesterday, there has been no update about their status yet. The team will hold a morning skate at the Bell Centre at 10:30 AM and it will, as always, be followed by media availabilities where we may know more.
Tonight, will be the third meeting of the season between the two sides, the Canadiens having won both games set in Buffalo. In October, Jake Allen signed a 3-1 win and just last month, Cayden Primeau got a 3-2 win. The fourth and final game between the two teams is scheduled for February 21.
Players to watch tonight could include Sean Monahan who’s got 21 points in 20 games against Buffalo and Brendan Gallagher who’s got 22 points in 37 games and is still chasing the 42nd all-time rank in assists with the Habs detained by Mark Recchi with 202. Gallagher currently has 200 and he’s been stuck there for a while.
Cole Caufield will hope to extend his goal scoring streak, as he’s got three goals in three games while linemate Juraj Slafkovsky has got two assists in as many games and captain Nick Suzuki has four points in three games. Slowly but surely, Slafkovsky’s overall improvement to his game is starting to translate in points. So far, the young Slovak has got 14 points in 37 games, which is already four more than what he got in the 39 matches he took part in as a rookie.
The identity of tonight’s netminder hasn’t been announced yet, but Jake Allen has the better numbers against Buffalo. In 12 starts, he’s recorded eight wins and has got a 2.20 GAA and a .925 SP. Samuel Montembeault was in net for the last two games and was the first star of Tuesday’s tilt in Dallas. Allen’s last game was on December 30th against the Panthers, a 4-1 loss. As for Cayden Primeau, he played two consecutive games on December 22 and 28 winning against the Hawks in the first game and losing against the Hurricanes in the second one.
The NHL is set to announce which 32 players have been selected for next month's all-star game and the smart money is on Nick Suzuki to be the Canadiens' representative. Fans will then be able to vote for which players they want to add to the star studded line up. This season, the players won't represent their division as the format will go back to appointed captains who will be called on to draft their team. Who will be this year's Phil Kessel? If last year's event is anything to go by, the draft may well be the most interesting part of the weekend.
Montreal Canadiens Blogger • 
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