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

Montreal Canadiens vs. Florida Panthers

How to watch

Start time: 7:00 PM EST / 4:00 PM PST
In Canadiens: TSN2 (English), RDS (French)
In the Panthers region: Bally Sports Florida

Annoyingly for Habs fans who are dreaming of seeing two high selections in the 2023 NHL Draft, the team associated with their second first-round pick, the Florida Panthers, has been rising up the standings of late. Having only 40 points through the opening half of the season, the Panthers have earned points in four of their last five games to climb within sight of a wild-card position.

Aleksander Barkov and Matthew Tkachuk lead the way, but the Panthers have also received offensive help from Sam Reinhart and defenceman Brandon Montour on their current run, and are getting significant production from their power play to finish on top in some closely contested games.

For the sake of their draft hopes, it’s in the Habs’ best interest to knock the Panthers down a peg. Montreal is playing much better than they were when these two teams last met, stringing together some great efforts, and getting wins as a result. The return of former Panther Mike Matheson to the Canadiens lineup is helping to not only stabilize the defence pairings but give the team another puck-moving option, and his play could be the edge needed to run the Habs’ winning streak to three games.

Montreal Canadiens projected lineup

Scratched: Chris Wideman
Injured: Jake Allen, Joel Armia, Paul Byron, Jonathan Drouin, Jake Evans, Brendan Gallagher, Kaiden Guhle, Sean Monahan, Juraj Slafkovský

Florida Panthers projected lineup