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

Montreal Canadiens vs. Ottawa Senators

How to watch

Start time: 7:00 PM EDT / 4:00 PM PDT
In Canada: CityTV, Sportsnet East/360 (English), TVA Sports (French)
Streaming: ESPN+, NHL Live, Sportsnet Now

The Canadiens and Senators meet for the second of four times this season, with nothing on the line but draft-lottery positioning. For individual players, however, there’s plenty to play for.

Montreal has one player very keen to have an impact in the game, and that is Jonathan Drouin, who has missed two months of action and will be playing his first game under Martin St. Louis. From the sidelines, he’s seen how the change has benefited other players, especially Cole Caufield, Nick Suzuki, and Artturi Lehkonen, and he must have been itching to get back on the ice to put his offensive creativity to good use.

The Senators have a slew of pending free agents, be most notable being of the restricted variety in top-line centre Josh Norris and recently promoted top-pairing defenceman Erik Brannstrom, both of whom want to prove over these final 21 games that they deserve to get sizable raises in the off-season. Norris’s 25 goals in 45 games are doing the talking for him, while Brannstrom is still trying to find his footing in the NHL. He’s sure to get a large dose of fellow former Vegas Golden Knights prospect Suzuki to contend with, and that’s going to be a major test of his ability to stay in his current role.

Montreal Canadiens projected lineup

Ottawa Senators projected lineup