GAME DAY: Seider aims to continue point streak as Red Wings take on Canadiens

Photo credit:Jean-Yves Ahern-USA TODAY Sports

2 years ago

The Montreal Canadiens have just two wins in 10 games this season.

One of those victories came against the Detroit Red Wings on Oct. 23, when @Mathieu Perreault scored a hat trick in a 6-1 Habs win at the Bell Centre.

Tuesday’s rematch between Detroit and Montreal will also take place in the venerable Québécois coliseum, the NHL’s largest arena by seating capacity. Despite having room for 21,302 fans in the Bell Centre, the Canadiens have averaged 2,282 empty seats through their first four home games of the 2021–22 season — three of which have been losses.

That’s right: Detroit handed Montreal its first (and, to this point, only) home win of the season just over a week ago. To their credit, the Red Wings rebounded to go 2-1-1 in their next four games.

Rookie defenseman @Moritz Seider picked up an assist on the Red Wings’ lone goal in their blowout loss in Montreal on Oct. 23. That contest served as the start of a five-game point streak for 20-year-old, who leads the team with eight assists this season but is still searching for his first NHL goal. He’ll look to continue his strong play on Tuesday.

Most recently, Detroit fell to the Toronto Maple Leafs by a 5-4 score on Nov. 30. With @Tyler Bertuzzi out of the lineup at Toronto’s Scotiabank Arena due to his unvaccinated status, @Joe Veleno stepped in for the Red Wings and posted two points in the defeat. He’ll retain his spot in the lineup for the Canadiens game — and perhaps beyond.

Immediately after defeating the Wings, Montreal embarked on a four-game Pacific Division road trip and posted a 1-3-0 record. They allowed five goals in both Seattle and Los Angeles and conceded four to the Anaheim Ducks, shutting out the San Jose Sharks in the middle by a 4-0 score.

The Red Wings

Here’s how the Red Wings lined up in Toronto on Saturday:

@Robby Fabbri – @Dylan Larkin – @Lucas Raymond
@Joe Veleno – @Pius Suter – @Filip Zadina
@Vladislav Namestnikov – @Michael Rasmussen – @Sam Gagner
@Givani Smith – @Mitchell Stephens – @Carter Rowney

Danny DeKeyser – @Moritz Seider
@Nick Leddy – @Filip Hronek
@Marc Staal – @Jordan Oesterle

Expect @Alex Nedeljkovic to man the pipes for Detroit in Montreal. He’s 1-1-2 with a .900 save percentage this season.

@Adam Erne missed Saturday’s game after suffering an undisclosed injury in Detroit’s 3-2 overtime loss to the Florida Panthers on Oct. 29. It’s unclear whether he’ll be available in Montreal.

The Canadiens

Here’s our best guess as to what the Canadiens’ lines will look like on Tuesday:

@Jonathan Drouin – @Christian Dvorak – @Josh Anderson
@Mike Hoffman – @Nick Suzuki – @Tyler Toffoli
@Joel Armia – @Adam Brooks – @Artturi Lehkonen
@Michael Pezzetta – @Jean-Sebastien Dea – @Jake Evans

@Ben Chiarot – @Jeff Petry
@Alexander Romanov – @David Savard
@Brett Kulak – @Chris Wideman

Here’s who likely won’t play for Montreal:

@Cedric Paquette will miss Tuesday’s game while he serves the first half of a two-game suspension for boarding Anaheim’s @Trevor Zegras;
@Brendan Gallagher is out with what could be a core injury;
@Cole Caufield is no longer in the NHL, having been demoted by Montreal to the Laval Rocket on Monday;
@Mathieu Perreault is on injured reserve with an eye injury.

We’re assuming Montreal recalls Dea, a veteran of 33 NHL games, prior to Tuesday’s game. @Jake Allen (2-8-0, .907 SV%) will likely start in goal for the Habs.

Scoring leaders

Detroit: @Tyler Bertuzzi (six goals, nine points); @Lucas Raymond (four goals, nine points); @Dylan Larkin (three goals, eight points); @Moritz Seider (zero goals, eight points); @Vladislav Namestnikov (four goals, six points).

Montreal: @Jonathan Drouin (two goals, seven points); @Josh Anderson (two goals, five points); @Nick Suzuki (zero goals, five points); @Mike Hoffman (four goals, four points); @Mathieu Perreault (three goals, four points).

Players to watch

Detroit: It’s hard to say whether the Red Wings intended to bring up @Joe Veleno purely as a short-term Bertuzzi replacement or for the purposes of an extended experiment. Either way, it looks like Veleno might be forcing the Wings to keep him in the NHL. He got off to a good start in Toronto, posting two points in spite of his team getting soundly outplayed in most facets of the game.

Montreal: Basically everybody is struggling in Montreal. Remember last season, when @Tyler Toffoli scored 28 goals in just 52 games? That was clearly never going to be sustainable … but Toffoli has now gone in the complete opposite direction, having managed just one goal and three points in his first 10 games of the 2021–22 season. Something has to give.

Viewing and listening options

Friday’s Red Wings game will be broadcast on Bally Sports Detroit Plus starting at 7:00 p.m. ET. Canadian viewers will be able to watch on TSN2 and RDS.

It’ll be sent over the airwaves on WXVT-FM 97.1 “The Ticket” in the Detroit area, as well as on the Red Wings’ official website.

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