TBL@MTL: What you need to know

MONTREAL – The Canadiens play host to the Tampa Bay Lightning in their return to the Bell Centre on Tuesday night. 

Here’s what you need to know heading into the game: 

1. The Habs are back home after a three-game Western Conference road trip which wrapped up on Saturday night in St. Louis. Montreal lost that game 6-3. Juraj Slafkovsky scored his first goal of the season in the first period at Enterprise Centre on Saturday, and the Canadiens went into the third period trailing 3-2 after Brendan Gallagher notched his fourth of the campaign late in the second frame. But, a three-goal third period sealed the deal for the Blues, even though captain Nick Suzuki narrowed the gap with a goal with under two minutes remaining in the game. Sam Montembeault made 29 saves.

2. After a scheduled day off on Sunday, the Habs were back on the ice for practice on Monday. Rafael Harvey-Pinard did not take part in the full skate, which was held at the Bell Centre because it was the annual team photo day. Harvey-Pinard left Thursday’s game in Arizona with a lower-body injury and hasn’t played since. We’ll have to wait until after Tuesday’s morning skate to see if head coach Martin St-Louis provides any updates on the forward or if he decides to make any lineup changes against Tampa Bay.

3. Forward Sean Monahan has enjoyed a solid start to the season and, although his goal-scoring streak was halted at four games on Saturday, he did pick up an assist on the Gallagher goal to extend his point streak to five contests. Monahan has 10 points (6G, 4A) in 11 games, which is good for second on the team behind Cole Caufield’s 11 points. What’s more, Monahan is hovering near the top of the League in faceoff wins, coming out on top in 60.8% of his draws so far this season. The 29-year-old went 10-for-16 in the dot on Saturday night.

4. The Lightning and Maple Leafs faced off on Monday night, and each team emerged from the game with 14 points in the standings after Toronto defeated Tampa 6-5 in overtime at Scotiabank Arena. The Lightning skated out to a 4-1 lead after the first period off a pair of goals from Nikita Kucherov sandwiched by Victor Hedman and Brayden Point. Brandon Hagel scored late in the third to send the game to overtime after the Leafs took the lead back, and they took it home in OT.

Kucherov enjoyed a four-point night on Monday and leads the team with 20 points on the season. Point is right behind him with 16. Jonas Johansson was in goal in Toronto, so expect to see Matt Tomkins between the pipes in Montreal.

5. Game time is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. ET at the Bell Centre. You can catch all the action on TSN2 or RDS on television, or on TSN 690 or 98,5 fm on the radio. For tickets, click here.