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

Montreal Canadiens @ Edmonton Oilers

How to watch

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

Having a winning streak snapped on Tuesday, the Montreal Canadiens decided to start a new one on Thursday night. They went up against not just one of the top teams in the league, but one of the clubs playing the best at this moment in the season, and went blow-for-blow with the Calgary Flames, coming away with an overtime win.

To win again tonight means splitting the season series with the Edmonton Oilers, who won the first game back on January 29. Former Habs head coach Dominique Ducharme infamously stated in that night’s post-game appearance that the Canadiens had at least kept Connor McDavid off the scoresheet — in a 7-2 loss.

Even if the Canadiens manage to keep the score closer this time, shutting down McDavid completely isn’t a realistic goal since he has eight multi-point games since Jay Woodcroft took over behind the bench. With the way the Habs are firing on offence, it isn’t necessary to keep McDavid and/or Leon Draisaitl at zero points, as Montreal has been regularly hitting three goals per game in recent weeks. They’d still like to avoid a high-scoring game versus two of the league’s superstars, but at this point you can’t count the Habs out of such a battle.

Montreal Canadiens projected lineup

Edmonton Oilers projected lineup