John Carlson is expected to make his debut for the Anaheim Ducks against the Montreal Canadiens on March 15, as the team concludes its Canadian road trip. The game will begin at 4 p.m. Pacific Time and will be broadcast on KCOP-13 and Victory+.
The Ducks are coming off a 2-0 loss to the Ottawa Senators in the first game of their back-to-back series. Beckett Sennecke said after the game, “We ran into a strong goalie tonight. I’ll give them credit, they were pretty tough in front of their net, clearing us out. I think that just sums it up … We knew they were going to play hard. All those points matter so much … I don’t think we kind of struggled out there, it was kind of a back-and-forth game. We kind of traded chances and they buried a couple of theirs and we didn’t.”
For Sunday’s matchup in Montreal, head coach Joel Quenneville confirmed that Carlson would join the lineup after being acquired from Washington on March 5. Quenneville said earlier in the road trip that he was “Forecasting [Carlson] to play in Montreal” and indicated everything was set for Carlson’s participation.
Carlson described his upcoming debut as “exciting,” especially given Montreal’s rich hockey history. He discussed his mindset heading into the contest: “For our team, it’s a big game,” Carlson said. “It’s a ‘response game’ for us to finish the trip right. Obviously, being my first game, I wouldn’t want anything less than that. It’s a big point in the season and it feels like coming down the stretch, most of the teams we’re gonna be playing are kind of jockeying for something and this will be no different and no different for us as well.”
This season with Washington, Carlson has recorded 10 goals and 36 assists over 55 games.
Montreal also enters Sunday’s contest following a loss—the Canadiens fell to San Jose by a score of 4-2 but have won three out of their last four games. Cole Caufield and Nick Suzuki scored for Montreal against San Jose while Noah Dobson contributed two assists.
Sunday marks the final regular season meeting between Anaheim and Montreal; Anaheim previously defeated Montreal nine days ago in a shootout victory.