Ducks at Canadiens
The Anaheim Ducks hope to have John Gibson in goal when they visit the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday afternoon, but No. 2 Ryan Miller is prepared to play back-to-back games for the first time this season if necessary. Miller made 30 saves in Thursday's 2-1 overtime loss at Ottawa after Gibson left Tuesday's 3-1 victory at Boston with a groin injury.
“Overall, I felt pretty good about my game,” Miller, who is 6-2-5 with a 2.19 goals-against average and .929 save percentage this season, told the Orange County Register. "If they need me to keep going, I’ll keep going. That’s kind of the attitude I’ve tried to take all year. If they need me, I’m going to try to get the points.” Anaheim could use a few more of those as it is locked in a tight Pacific race which has four teams battling for second and third behind runaway division leader Vegas. Montreal fell to 2-5-2 in its last nine games with its third straight loss, a 2-0 setback at Carolina on Thursday that further diminished its slim playoff hopes. "I'd like to see more desperation, add to that effort because that's what we need to turn things around," Canadiens coach Claude Julien told reporters. "Make a little mistake and it's in the back of our net. Right now, that's just the way it is."
TV: 1 p.m. ET, FS West (Anaheim), TSN2, RDS (Montreal)
ABOUT THE DUCKS (25-17-10): Adam Henrique (11 goals, 17 points in 27 games with Anaheim) had his six-game point streak (six goals, two assists) snapped Thursday. Captain Ryan Getzlaf has been kept off the scoresheet for the last three games after accumulating six goals and 25 assists in his first 25 contests of the season. Defenseman Josh Manson (20 minutes, 35 seconds of ice time per game) was tied for ninth in the NHL with a plus-22 rating entering Friday despite being a minus-1 over his last three contests.
ABOUT THE CANADIENS (20-25-6): Max Pacioretty has 16 goals and a team-high 31 points, but the captain's days in Montreal appear to be numbered as teams continue to express interest in advance of the Feb. 26 trade deadline. "He's been a real professional about it," Price told reporters. "He continues to work on his game and just focus on what he needs to focus on. ..." Brendan Gallagher leads the club with 18 goals - two in the last four games - with Jonathan Drouin's 19 assists most on the team.
OVERTIME
1. The Ducks fell to 11th in penalty killing after yielding seven power-play goals in 23 chances over its last seven games.
2. Montreal had three of the sixth-worst players in the NHL in plus-minus rating entering Friday in C Alex Galchenyuk (minus-26), D Jeff Petry (minus-25) and Drouin (minus-24).
3. Anaheim prevailed 6-2 on Oct. 20 in the first of two meetings this season, highlighted by the only two-goal game of Derek Grant's career, as the home team won for the sixth straight time in the series.