Canadiens @ Avalanche: Game thread, rosters, lines, and how to watch

Montreal Canadiens @ Colorado Avalanche

How to watch

Start time: 7:00 PM EST / 4:00 PM PST
In Canada: CityTV, Sportsnet East (English), TVA Sports (French)
In the U.S.: NHL Network
In the Avalanche region: Altitude
Streaming: ESPN+, NHL Live, Sportsnet Now

The Colorado Avalanche have taken three-quarters of the points that have been available to them through 38 games, the second-best points percentage in the NHL. Following a 4-5-1 start, they’ve been racking up wins, and enter this game on a five-game winning streak.

They have had trouble getting the run to six games, however. Their last 17 games feature three streaks of five victories broken up by losses, so if you’re hoping for a Canadiens win, you’d like to see that pattern continue, but it will require cooling off some red-hot players in the Avalance lineup.

In this most recent five-game span, Mikko Rantanen has eight points, Nathan MacKinnon has seven, top defencemen Cale Makar and Devon Toews each have four, and the second-line duo of Nazem Kadri and Andre Burakovsky has also been providing key contributions.

Montreal’s desire to keep pace was dealt a blow with news of an inury to Jonathan Drouin. One of Montreal’s most creative players over the past few weeks has been placed on Injured Reserve with an upper-body injury. There are also lingering issues for Jeff Petry and Josh Anderson that put their participation in tonight’s game in question.

Montreal Canadiens projected lineup

Colorado Avalanche projected lineup