Montreal Canadiens vs. Chicago Blackhawks
How to watch
Start time: 7:30 PM EST / 4:30 PM PST
In Canada: Sportsnet, Sportsnet Now
In the Canadiens region: RDS, RDS Direct (French)
In the Blackhawks region: NBCSCH
Streaming: NHL.tv/NHL Live
Tonight will see a clash between two teams who seem to match up quite well. They have similar stats and similar results through 47 games of the season. Perhaps surprisingly, it’s Montreal that comes ahead in the goals scored department given the elite talent the ‘Hakws are known for, but that points to the depth the Canadiens enjoyed at the beginning of the year that has kept their average up over three goals per game into the second half of the year with some major pieces missing.
Chicago still has plenty of firepower to guard against, and one of their players, Dominik Kubalik, is beginning to get quite comfortable midway through his first NHL season. The 24-year-old winger has scored in five straight games, and netted a pair of goals in each of his previous two outings as he discovers some chemisty on a line with Patrick Kane. The American has had to play more of a playmaking role for his linemate to achieve that, but as he continues to creep up to the 1000-point milestone in his career, he surely won’t mind how the goals are being scored.
Montreal will once again be relying on their own European shooter to help them trade blows with the opposition. Ilya Kovalchuk will be more than happy to test an injury-plagued Blackhawks defence and pepper Corey Crawford with shots as he has in a few of his games so far.
Montreal Canadiens projected lineup
Untitled
| Left Wing |
Centre |
Right Wing |
| Tomas Tatar |
Phillip Danault |
Ilya Kovalchuk |
| Artturi Lehkonen |
Max Domi |
Nick Suzuki |
| Ryan Poehling |
Jesperi Kotkaniemi |
Nick Cousins |
| Jordan Weal |
Nate Thompson |
Dale Weise |
Defencemen
| Left Defence |
Right Defence |
| Ben Chiarot |
Shea Weber |
| Marco Scandella |
Jeff Petry |
| Victor Mete |
Cale Fleury |
Goaltenders
| Goaltenders |
| Charlie Lindgren |
| Carey Price |
Injured: Joel Armia, Paul Byron, Jonathan Drouin, Brendan Gallagher
Scratched: Brett Kulak, Matthew Peca
Chicago Blackhawks projected lineup
Forwards
| Left Wing |
Centre |
Right Wing |
| Dominik Kubalik |
Jonathan Toews |
Drake Caggiula |
| Alexander Nylander |
Ryan Carpenter |
Patrick Kane |
| Alex DeBrincat |
David Kampf |
Kirby Dach |
| Dylan Sikura |
Zack Smith |
Matthew Highmore |
Defencemen
| Left Defence |
Right Defence |
| Duncan Keith |
Adam Boqvist |
| Erik Gustafsson |
Connor Murphy |
| Olli Maatta |
Slater Koekkoek |
Goaltenders
| Goaltenders |
| Corey Crawford |
| Robin Lehner |
