Game 23: Montreal Canadiens @ Vegas Golden Knights
Start time: **4:00 PM EST / 1:00 PM PST**
In the Canadiens region: TSN2 (English), RDS (French)
In the Golden Knights region: Scripps
Streaming: ESPN+, RDS, TSN+
We all saw on Saturday night what life is like for the Toronto Maple Leafs after Mitch Marner moved on in the off-season. The current era has been one defined by a flawed construction braced by elite talent, but without Marner contributing offence at a 100-point pace while also providing Selke Trophy-calibre defence to the top line, that is no longer the case. The Maple Leafs fell to last place in the Eastern Conference after losing to the Montreal Canadiens as they now compete with the Buffalo Sabres for that spot.
Marner maybe hasn’t taken on the role he expected when he signed with the Vegas Golden Knights in free agency; not going from playing with the top draft pick from the 2016 NHL Draft, Auston Matthews, to the the number-two selection the previous summer, Jack Eichel, but playing a support role on the second line. He still ranks second on the Golden Knights in minutes per game by a forward, and is probably happy to rank sixth among forwards in penalty-kill time rather than first as he did for the 2024-25 Maple Leafs.
Not playing with the top options, he’s not on his 100-point pace, and has cooled off significantly from a hot start to the season that saw him string four multi-point performances together, which happened to coincide with a four-game winning streak for Las Vegas. The team has gone 5-5-6 since that run ended, and Marner has 12 points in those 16 games.
Tale of the Tape
Canadiens
Statistics
Golden Knights
12-7-3
Record
10-5-8
49.3% (18th)
Expected-goal share
52.6% (8th)
3.45 (3rd)
Goals per game
3.09 (15th)
3.50 (27th)
Goals against per game
2.91 (14th)
23.1% (10th)
PP%
23.8% (9th)
76.3% (25th)
PK%
80.3% (17th)
1-1-0
Head-to-Head Record
1-1-0
Cole Caufield (13)
Most goals
Jack Eichel (11)
Nick Suzuki (19)
Most assists
Jack Eichel (20)
Nick Suzuki (26)
Most points
Jack Eichel (31)
Since a very generous inauguration when too many NHL teams left top players available in the expansion draft, the Golden Knights have always been a great offensive team, never finishing a season averaging less than three goals — nor ever averaging more than three goals against. So far in 2025-26, they’re on pace for the second-worst production in their nine-year history at 3.09 per contest. Limiting the sample to games since that winning streak ended after game number seven of the season, the team is scoring 2.56 goals per game.
Given that performance, Martin St-Louis made the decision to give today’s start to Samuel Montembeault, letting him face the less dangerous of the two opponents on this Thanksgiving weekend back-to-back. That’s as clear an indication as any that Jakub Dobeš is currently regarded as the starter, and it’s hard to deny that claim after consecutive wins from the Czech netminder improved his personal record to 8-2-2. But it does make finishing with a winning record on this road trip much more difficult with a struggling Montembeault going first and then Dobeš thrown into the path of an onrushing Colorado Avalanche team that has just a single regulation loss this season. Montreal needs Montembeault to be at least better than he has been to bank a win.
Fortunately for Montreal, their own offence is clicking despite missing three middle-six forwards. The Habs have netted at least four goals in each of the past three games, upping their season average to 3.45, which ranks third in the NHL. After a drought of six games when they didn’t have a power-play goal, they now have three in the last three contests (four if you count one that was called back on an offside review). The man advantage is what saved Montreal from a loss on Wednesday night, and will likely play a big role in today’s game as well.
