Canadiens vs. Blues: Game thread, rosters, lines, and how to watch

Montreal Canadiens vs. St. Louis Blues

How to watch

Start time: 7:00 PM EDT / 4:00 PM PDT
In Canada: CityTV, Sportsnet Now (English), TVA Sports (French)
In the US: NHL Network
In the Blues region: Fox Sports Midwest
Streaming: NHL.tv / NHL Live

A bad night in the home-opener has led Claude Julien to tinker with his lineup. Tonight, we’ll see one of the tweaks the coach has employed in-game at various points, as Nick Suzuki will start on the fourth line with Paul Byron and Nate Thompson, swapping places with Jordan Weal.

Brett Kulak gets to dress in his third game of the season, and he’ll hope it’s much better than his first two. It’s possible that a pre-season spent backing up Josh Brook didn’t allow him to ramp up his play in time for the new season, but whatever the reason, his game was far from the reliable version we saw in the final third of last year.

The defence will be tested by a quality forward group from St. Louis, and one that is backed by some great offensive blue-liners on the right side. The biggest concern may be how the Canadiens’ third pairing of Ben Chiarot and Christian Folin match up with those forwards, though none of the other duos have really proven they can shut down an opposing attack to this point of the season. Fortunately, Julien does have last change, so he can decide when and where to deploy his defenders — so long as they’re not forced to ice the puck throughout the night.

Montreal Canadiens projected lineup

St. Louis Blues projected lineup