The Montreal Canadiens look to remain perfect at Bell Centre on Thursday when they host the Arizona Coyotes.
The Canadiens opened the season with a 4-3 victory versus the visiting Toronto Maple Leafs before stumbling in their next two road contests. Montreal regained its footing with a 3-2 overtime win over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Monday to begin its four-game homestand.
“It’s huge for us,” said Canadiens captain Nick Suzuki, who has scored a goal in back-to-back games.
“We want to be good on home ice. In the last couple of years, we haven’t really done that. It’s important to win at home and we want to put on a good show for our fans, so to win games, and to win games like that, it’s pretty fun.”
Defenseman Kaiden Guhle likely had some fun on Monday, recording the first two points of his career after assisting on third-period goals by Suzuki and Cole Caufield. He was selected by the Canadiens with the 16th overall pick of the 2020 NHL Draft.
Kirby Dach, who scored in overtime, has known the 20-year-old Guhle for quite some time. They attended the same high school in the Edmonton area.
“Guhls is pretty good,” Dach said, per the Montreal Gazette. “I’ve skated with him for a long time. To see him progress and watch him out there and see how much fun he’s having and just really enjoying the game, it’s pretty special.”
Speaking of high draft picks, rookie Juraj Slafkovsky — the top overall selection of the 2022 NHL Draft — is slowly getting acclimated to the speed of the game and limited ice time (team-low average 10:41 per contest).
“Of course, it’s a challenge,” the 6-foot-3, 238-pound teenager said Tuesday. “I had this challenge last year in (the Finnish Elite League) at the beginning. It kept going better and better and I believe it will go better and better as well here. I will just keep fighting for my spot and I believe when I do all the small things good and we will keep winning I can get more and more ice time.”
While the Canadiens have fared well at home, the Coyotes limped out of the gate with a pair of lopsided losses to begin their season-opening six-game road trip. Arizona answered the bell on Monday, however, with a 4-2 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs.
The Coyotes play their home opener against the Winnipeg Jets at Mullett Arena in Tempe, Ariz., on Oct. 28.
“We know the perception of our team outside this rink. We’re not the traditional hockey market, and we know there’s a bunch of stuff going on with our rink, and we’re obviously in a rebuild, but we’re coming in here to play every night,” defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere said. “I told our team on our team-bonding trip. Who cares about the noise? What matters is the guys in this locker room, and we can get better every day and surprise some teams some nights.”
Gostisbehere continued his fast start to the season by recording a goal and an assist on Monday. He has two and three, respectively, during his season-opening three-game point streak.
Arizona has scored five of its nine goals on the power play this season. Nick Ritchie has tallied three times with the man advantage this season and had 13 goals overall in 27 games since being acquired from the Maple Leafs on Feb. 19.
–Field Level Media
