Tonight at 7:30 p.m. ET, the Montreal Canadiens (23-11-2, 48 points) and Florida Panthers (16-9-8, 40 points) face-off for the first of five meetings this season live from the BB&T Center in Florida. The game can be live streamed here. Montreal fans can hear all of the action on TSN 690 while Florida fans can do the same on WFLA 970.
Montreal has won three straight games and plays the third contest of a five-match road trip while Florida is on a two-game winning streak and plays the third tilt of a four-match homestand.
The Canadiens are in second place in the Atlantic Division while the Panthers are two points out of the final wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference.
The Canadiens are coming off of a 3-1 victory over the Carolina Hurricanes on Monday that saw Carey Price play a strong game in net that he contributed to his defenseman.
"The guys are playing extremely well in front of me, especially tonight," Price said via NHL.com. "I left a lot of rebounds out there in front of the net and guys were sagging down into the house and doing a great job around the net. You have to attribute all that success to them."
Price will likely sit after playing his 11th straight game as Montreal may start Dustin Tokarski in his place. Tokarski is 3-2-1 with a 2.44 goals-against average and a .914 save percentage this season.
Florida will likely counter with Montreal native Roberto Luongo in between the pipes and he is 14-7-6 with a 2.36 GAA and a .921 save percentage.
The Panthers are coming off of a 6-4 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs on Sunday and will hope to build off of it after struggling in the second frame, but bouncing back in the third.
"It was a total team thing in the second period on those goals," Florida coach Gerard Gallant told NHL.com. "We made some bad mistakes. Guys had chances to get pucks out. And it's things we don't do usually, but we made up for it in the third."
Nick Bjugstad has paced the Panthers offensively with 20 points off of 12 goals and eight assists while Aaron Ekblad (five tallies, 14 helpers) and Jussi Jokinen (four goals, 15 assists) are tied for second on the team with 19 points.
The Canadiens will combat the Panthers with a lineup that is paced by Max Pacioretty as he has a team-best 28 points off of 14 goals and 14 assists. Alex Galchenyuk has 10 markers and 15 helpers for 25 points while Tomas Plekanec has also lit the lamp 10 times while adding 13 assists for 23 points.
The Canadiens and Panthers wind down the 2014 part of their slate when the puck drops tonight at the BB&T Center in Florida.
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