Game 24: Montreal Canadiens @ Boston Bruins
Start time: **4:15 PM EST / 1:15 PM PST**
In Canada: Sportsnet (English)
In the Canadiens region: RDS (French)
In the Bruins region: NESN
Streaming: ESPN+, RDS, Sportsnet+
One hundred years ago today the Boston Bruins were born, and thus began the rivalry between the teams from Massachusetts and Montreal. In recent history, the Bruins have had firm control of the series, The Canadiens finally broke a 10-game losing streak to the Bruins in the first meeting of last year, but have lost the next four, including the second game of this campaign.
While Montreal is (or should soon be) trending upward, the Bruins are approaching the end of their competitive window with their current core led by Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak. The beginning of the end was the retirement of Patrice Bergeron, and while they hung on perhaps longer than they were expected to without the perennial Selke Trophy-winner, the lack of high-end punch is beginning to show in their results.
Instead of being a juggernaut the Habs face tonight, it’s a team having serious issues putting the puck in the net, last in the league in goals per game. If the Canadiens can get over the fact that this is a team that they generally struggle against, they might find that it’s an opponent on a similar level, and one that can be beaten if they can maintain the form they’ve shown in the previous three games this week.
Montreal Canadiens projected lineup
| Left Wing |
Centre |
Right Wing |
| #13 Cole Caufield |
#14 Nick Suzuki |
#35 Alex Newhook |
| #20 Juraj Slafkovský |
#28 Christian Dvorak |
#11 Brendan Gallagher |
| #89 Joshua Roy |
#77 Kirby Dach |
#17 Josh Anderson |
| #51 Emil Heineman |
#71 Jake Evans |
#40 Joel Armia |
| Left Defence |
Right Defence |
| #48 Lane Hutson |
#8 Mike Matheson |
| #47 Jayden Struble |
#21 Kaiden Guhle |
| #72 Arber Xhekaj |
#58 David Savard |
| Starter |
Backup |
| #30 Cayden Primeau |
#35 Samuel Montembeault |
Scratched: Justin Barron, Michael Pezzetta
Injured: Patrik Laine
Boston Bruins projected lineup
| Left Wing |
Centre |
Right Wing |
| Morgan Geekie |
Pavel Zacha |
David Pastrnak |
| Brad Marchand |
Elias Lindholm |
Justin Brazeau |
| Trent Frederic |
Charlie Coyle |
Tyler Johnson |
| John Beecher |
Mark Kastelic |
Cole Koepke |
| Left Defence |
Right Defence |
| Mason Lohrei |
Charlie McAvoy |
| Parker Wotherspoon |
Brandon Carlo |
| Nikita Zadorov |
Andrew Peeke |
| Starter |
Backup |
| Jeremy Swayman |
Joonas Korpisalo |
