Panthers at Canadiens
The Florida Panthers gained some ground in the Eastern Conference playoff race during a 12-game stay in the Sunshine State by going 9-2-1, but they wrap up the month by spending most of their time on the road. Florida begins a string that features seven of its next eight contests away from home on Monday, when it visits the struggling Montreal Canadiens.
The Panthers sit five points out of the second wild-card spot in the East after Saturday's damaging 4-2 loss to Edmonton, but they have games in hand on every team ahead of them in the standings. “A lot of important hockey ahead of us here,” Florida goaltender Roberto Luongo told reporters on Saturday. “Disappointed with (Saturday), but we’ve got some big games coming up on the road this week. So we’ve got to forget about it and just get back to what we do best.” The Canadiens, who are playing out the string of a disappointing, injury-plagued season, have recorded just one victory in their last eight games (1-5-2) after suffering a 4-0 loss at Toronto on Saturday. Montreal is 29th in the league in scoring (2.5 goals) and has been shut out by Florida in each of the last two meetings between the Atlantic Division rivals.
TV: 7:30 p.m. ET, FS Florida, TSN2, RDS (Montreal)
ABOUT THE PANTHERS (35-27-7): All-Star Aleksander Barkov (team-high 70 points) has cooled off a bit with just two assists in his last four games after stringing together an eight-game point streak. Vincent Trocheck has carried a lot of the offensive load lately with a six-game point streak during which he has collected four of his team-best 28 goals and five assists to move within four of Barkov for the club lead in points. Defenseman Keith Yandle has registered nine assists over his last eight contests while Nick Bjugstad has notched 11 points in his past nine games.
ABOUT THE CANADIENS (26-34-12): Alex Galchenyuk has posted four assists in his last three contests to pull even for the team lead in points (44) with Brendan Gallagher, who has scored two of his club-best 26 goals in the last four games. Jonathan Drouin has registered four of his 37 points in the last four games while defenseman Jeff Petry has continued to add to his career high in points by notching three of his 35 over the last four contests. Montreal is 5-for-12 with the man advantage over its last five games but has allowed 13 power-play tallies over its last nine contests.
OVERTIME
1. Panthers captain Derek MacKenzie is slated to play in his 600th NHL contest on Monday.
2. Montreal LW Artturi Lehkonen has recorded four goals in his last five games but came up empty while registering seven shots on Saturday.
3. Florida D Alex Petrovic (lower body) has missed the last two games but could return to the lineup on Monday.