Game 19: Montreal Canadiens @ Columbus Blue Jackets
Start time: 7:30 PM EST / 4:30 PM PST
Streaming: Prime Monday Night Hockey
In the latter portion of last season, both the Montreal Canadiens and Columbus Blue Jackets had a goaltender come in through the minor-league system and establish himself as a regular. Jakub Dobeš and Jet Greaves have started eight and 11 games, respectively, through the opening few weeks of the season, and will go head-to-head in the first meeting between the teams this year.
Recently, it hasn’t been the goaltender preventing Montreal from winning games, but their own reluctance to test the opposing netminder. The Habs generally haven’t launched many pucks on target this year, ranking 29th in the league at 24.8 per game, and they went five straight contests without even hitting that average before recording 28 versus Boston two nights ago. With the message at yesterday’s practice being the need to get more shots on the power play, you have to expect that strategy will be applied at even strength as well in tonight’s game.
It’s a message that has hopefully been picked up by Joshua Roy as well, back with the team after the latest injury to Kirby Dach. He hasn’t had much of an impact in his latest recalls over the past couple of years, and it will be important for the team and for his future in the organization to show he can help the Canadiens win. Jared Davidson looked very good in his NHL debut on Saturday night, and that’s the standard Roy will be held to as the organization turns to its depth to get through some early-season adversity.
Montreal Canadiens projected lineup
| Left Wing |
Centre |
Right Wing |
| #13 Cole Caufield |
#14 Nick Suzuki |
#76 Zachary Bolduc |
| #20 Juraj Slafkovský |
#91 Oliver Kapanen |
#93 Ivan Demidov |
| #89 Joshua Roy |
#71 Jake Evans |
#17 Josh Anderson |
| #49 Jared Davidson |
#90 Joe Veleno |
#11 Brendan Gallagher |
| Left Defence |
Right Defence |
| #8 Mike Matheson |
#53 Noah Dobson |
| #47 Jayden Struble |
#48 Lane Hutson |
| #72 Arber Xhekaj |
#45 Alexandre Carrier |
| Starter |
Backup |
| #75 Jakub Dobeš |
#35 Samuel Montembeault |
Scratched: Marc Del Gaizo
Injured: Kirby Dach, Kaiden Guhle, Patrik Laine, Alex Newhook
Columbus Blue Jackets projected lineup
| Left Wing |
Centre |
Right Wing |
| Yegor Chinakov |
Sean Monahan |
Kent Johnson |
| Dmitri Voronkov |
Adam Fantilli |
Kirill Marchenko |
| Cole Sillinger |
Charlie Coyle |
Mathieu Olivier |
| Zach Aston-Reese |
Isac Lundestrom |
Miles Wood |
| Left Defence |
Right Defence |
| Zach Werenski |
Ivan Provorov |
| Denton Mateychuk |
Damon Severson |
| Jake Christiansen |
Dante Fabbro |
| Starter |
Backup |
| Jet Greaves |
Elvis Merzlikins |
