Sharks at Canadiens preview

SHARKS (12-10-5) at CANADIENS (12-9-5)
7 p.m. ET; SN, SN1, RDS, NBCSCA, NHL.TV

Goalie Martin Jones will start on consecutive days in the finale of a five-game road trip for San Jose, which has allowed four goals or more in eight of its past 12 games.
The Sharks have been outscored 20-7 during their four-game losing streak (0-3-1) following a 6-2 loss at the Ottawa Senators on Saturday.
Montreal looks to win consecutive games for the third time this season after ending a five-game losing streak (0-3-2) by defeating the New York Rangers 5-2 on Saturday.
The Canadiens have scored two goals or fewer in four of their past five games.

Players to watch

Sharks forward Joe Pavelski has four points (three goals, one assist) in his past three games, and 14 points (nine goals, five assists) in the past 10.
Canadiens defenseman Shea Weber scored twice Saturday in his second game since Dec. 16, 2017. It was his 18th NHL multigoal game, tying Mike Green of the Detroit Red Wings for the most by an active defenseman.

They said it

"When you have talented people sometimes you get into that game where you individually want to fix what's going wrong, and that never works, you know, the individual play. You have to rely on your foundation and your systems and stick with it for 60 minutes. And I think that's probably the thing we've been guilty of is not sticking with our game for long enough stretches." -- Sharks coach Peter DeBoer
"I thought we did a pretty good job of guys stepping up with him out of the lineup but you can't replace a Shea Weber, and getting him back has obviously been huge for our group." -- Canadiens forward Brendan Gallagher

Sharks projected lineup

Evander Kane -- Joe Pavelski -- Joonas Donskoi
Tomas Hertl -- Logan Couture -- Kevin Labanc
Marcus Sorensen -- Joe Thornton -- Melker Karlsson
Barclay Goodrow -- Lukas Radil -- Antti Suomela
Brenden Dillon -- Erik Karlsson
Radim Simek -- Brent Burns
Marc-Edouard Vlasic -- Justin Braun
Martin Jones
Aaron Dell
Scratched: Joakim Ryan, Tim Heed
Injured:Timo Meier (upper body)

Canadiens projected lineup

Jonathan Drouin -- Max Domi -- Andrew Shaw
Tomas Tatar -- Phillip Danault -- Brendan Gallagher
Paul Byron -- Jesperi Kotkaniemi -- Artturi Lehkonen
Kenny Agostino -- Michael Chaput -- Nicolas Deslauriers
Brett Kulak -- Shea Weber
David Schlemko -- Jeff Petry
Mike Reilly -- Jordie Benn
Carey Price
Antti Niemi
Scratched: Xavier Ouellet, Charles Hudon, Matthew Peca
Injured: Noah Juulsen (facial fracture), Joel Armia (lower body)

Status report

Meier will miss his third straight game. "He's improving every day but not ready yet," DeBoer said. … Simek will make his NHL debut. … Montreal did not hold a morning skate. … Forward Nikita Scherbak, waived Saturday by the Canadiens, was claimed by the Los Angeles Kings.

Stat pack

Couture has eight points (two goals, six assists) in the past seven games. … Lehkonen has three points (two goals, one assist) in the past two games. … Shaw needs one goal for 100 in the NHL, and one point for 200.