Game 18: Montreal Canadiens vs. Columbus Blue Jackets
Start time: 7:00 PM EST / 4:00 PM PST
In Canada: CityTV, Sportsnet East (English), TVA Sports (French)
In the Blue Jackets region: Bally Sports Ohio
Streaming: ESPN+, Sportsnet+
It’s a different-looking Montreal Canadiens team that returns to the Bell Centre tonight, not in terms of personnel, or even results, but in the style of play. The last game the home crowd saw was versus the Calgary Flames in which the Habs were outshot 35-24 in a 3-2 loss. In the four games played on the road, they allowed 27, 27, 18, and 28 shots, and very few from odd-man rushes resulting from poor decisions in the neutral zone.
Just as the defence has begun to come around, however, Martin St-Louis has made a change on the blue, taking our Jayden Struble to reinsert Justin Barron on the third pairing. That might mean more offensive chances created from the back end as Barron is better in that regard — Struble’s most salient moment from the last game was taking a double minor while on a rare one-man rush — but it will mean Montreal will be more compromised on defence.
Columbus is capable of taking advantage, with a very effective top line centred by Sean Monahan. Two days from trying to contain Kirill Kaprizov, its his namesake on the Blue Jackets’ roster, Kirill Marchenko who needs the most focus. The Russian is a point-per-game player through 16 games so far. The team also got a key performance from the line’s left wing last night when Dmitri Voronkov had a two-point performance to help beat the Pittsburgh Penguins.
The Blue Jackets’ placement at 27th in the standings belies the talent and effort level of their lineup, and the Canadiens will need to expect this to be another hard-fought battle versus a dangerous team.
Montreal Canadiens projected lineup
| Left Wing | Centre | Right Wing |
|---|---|---|
| #20 Juraj Slafkovský | #14 Nick Suzuki | #77 Kirby Dach |
| #35 Alex Newhook | #71 Jake Evans | #13 Cole Caufield |
| #17 Josh Anderson | #28 Christian Dvorak | #11 Brendan Gallagher |
| #51 Emil Heineman | #82 Lucas Condotta | #40 Joel Armia |
| Left Defence | Right Defence |
|---|---|
| #21 Kaiden Guhle | #8 Mike Matheson |
| #48 Lane Hutson | #58 David Savard |
| #72 Arber Xhekaj | #52 Justin Barron |
| Starter | Backup |
|---|---|
| #35 Samuel Montembeault | #30 Cayden Primeau |
Scratched: Michael Pezzetta, Jayden Struble
Injured: Rafaël Harvey-Pinard, Patrik Laine
Columbus Blue Jackets projected lineup
| Left Wing | Centre | Right Wing |
|---|---|---|
| Dmitri Voronkov | Sean Monahan | Kirill Marchenko |
| Cole Sillinger | Adam Fantilli | Yegor Chinakov |
| Mikael Pyyhtia | Justin Danforth | Mathieu Olivier |
| Zach Aston-Reese | Sean Kuraly | Kevin Labanc |
| Left Defence | Right Defence |
|---|---|
| Zach Werenski | Dante Fabbro |
| Ivan Provorov | Damon Severson |
| Jake Christiansen | Jordan Harris |
| Starter | Backup |
|---|---|
| Daniil Tarasov | Elvis Merzlikins |
