San Jose Sharks at Montreal Canadiens Preview: Saviez-vous que Vlasic est de Montréal?

The San Jose Sharks are coming off a loss. They have won just one of the last six games. The Montreal Canadiens are 11-9-1, sixth in the Atlantic. Last season the Habs were the worst team in NHL. General manager Marc Bergevin was fired and Martin St. Louis was named the interim head coach. He was very busy at the trade deadline, making several deals. He sent Tyler Toffoli to Calgary Flames for a first-round pick, a second-rounder, and a third- and fourth-year prospects. Also, he traded Brett Kulak to Edmonton Oilers for second round picks in 2022 and 2024.

Montreal Canadiens are looking for their next core. Suzuki, Dach and Caufield are the team's top scorers this season. The Sharks are letting their young players develop in the AHL. San Jose Sharks play Montreal Canadiens. San Francisco Sharks have 71 goals this year. Montreal Sharks has 71. 18 players have scored 31 goals. David Quinn and Mike Grier need to take the training wheels off and see if the kids can play.

Kaapo Kahkonen is second to last in the league in goals saved above expected. Aaron Dell was called up on an emergency basis. The Canadiens rank 14th in 5-on-5 goals scored and near the bottom of the NHL in high danger chance percentage and Corsi for percentage.

San Jose Sharks are playing without Erik Karlsson. Marc-Eduoard Vlasic, Jaycob Megna, Matt Benning, Radim Simek and Nick Cicek are the Sharks' defensive players. Montreal has some interesting players on the blue line, but they are either out of the league soon or still working through rookie bumps. The Canadiens have some good players, like Kaiden Guhle and Arber Xhekaj, and some poor ones, such as Kaikonen and Reimer.

Radim Simek and Arber Xhekaj get into an epic fight midway through the second period. The Sharks give up the lead with less than three minutes to play and the Canadiens win 4-3.