The Montreal Canadiens (46-20-7) are in Nashville Tuesday night to face the Predators (44-21-8) in their first leg of a two-game road trip that will feature the final regular season Habs matches against Western opponents. The game starts at 8:00 and airs on RDS and Sportsnet East.

Match Up

This is the second and final meeting between the Habs and Preds barring a playoff meeting. The Canadiens earned a 2-1 overtime victory the first time these teams met with Alex Galchenyuk drawing the teams even in the third period and PK Subban picking up the game winning goal and an assist.

What to Watch

Canadiens: Without digging too deeply into specifics, Carey Price has been having a pretty special season, punctuated by a pretty special past two starts. In his last two games, Price stopped all 60 of the shots he’s faced, moving him into first place of every major goaltending statistic, including the one that Marc-Andre Fleury was leading alone before Saturday’s win. It’s the second time Price has added to that category in back-to-back games this season.

Predators: Like the Canadiens, the Predators have had their share of struggles so far in March, winning just three of their ten games so far. Rookie sensation Filip Forsberg, who still leads the team in scoring with 55 points, has been held to just three assists this month.



What’s at Stake

Tuesday’s match is one of just two games remaining for the Habs against teams with more than 90 points on the year right now. It’s a last test against the league’s upper echelon before the playoffs as well as a chance for the Canadiens to help themselves out in the race for the Presidents’ Trophy.

Who’s Out

Torrey Mitchell has been cleared to play but Tom Gilbert (upper body) has taken his place in the Habs clinic, at least for the current road trip. Aside from that the team is healthy heading into Tuesday’s action.

The Predators are missing wingers James Neal (upper body) and Eric Nystrom (lower body).

What Else

With 99 points on the year, the Canadiens are just a single point away from outperforming their previous season. Since the point for overtime losses was added, the best Habs season was 104 points in 2007-08, a mark the Canadiens look to clear easily with nine games remaining on the schedule.

The Question Mark

Between the potential first round match ups for the Canadiens: the Senators, Bruins, Capitals, or Red Wings, which would you want to see most and which would you want to see the least?

As always, we’ll be going over your answers on the Montreal Hockey Talk Habs Pregame Show, starting an hour before each Canadiens game on montrealhockeytalk.com.