Game 41: Montreal Canadiens @ Washington Capitals
Start time: 7:00 PM EST / 4:00 PM PST
In the Canadiens region: TSN2 (English), RDS (French)
In the Capitals region: Monumental Sports Network
Streaming: ESPN+, RDS, TSN+
Hopefully the Canadiens players enjoyed their three-day break from playing difficult games because, outside of the pause for the 4 Nations Face-Off in mid-February, there won’t be another sequence of off days that long the rest of the season. The final half of the schedule has been compressed by the mid-season tournament, and game are going to be happening quickly.
With that limited time between games, there could have been no better time for Jakub Dobes to arrive on the scene. The goaltender has already posted as many wins as Cayden Primeau had in the opening months of the year, and his performances so far allows Martin St-Louis to trust the new backup even versus the second-best team in the NHL, which the Habs will face in Washington tonight..
That doesn’t mean he will be able to win a third game in a row to begin his career, and that would be a surprising result even with the form the Canadiens are currently showing. A victory tonight would be an unexpected bonus, but the players will be going in feeling that it’s absolutely a possibility if they play the same way they have for about three weeks now.
Montreal Canadiens projected lineup
| Left Wing |
Centre |
Right Wing |
| #13 Cole Caufield |
#14 Nick Suzuki |
#20 Juraj Slafkovský |
| #55 Michael Pezzetta |
#77 Kirby Dach |
#35 Alex Newhook |
| #51 Emil Heineman |
#71 Jake Evans |
#40 Joel Armia |
| #17 Josh Anderson |
#28 Christian Dvorak |
#11 Brendan Gallagher |
| Left Defence |
Right Defence |
| #48 Lane Hutson |
#8 Mike Matheson |
| #21 Kaiden Guhle |
#45 Alexandre Carrier |
| #72 Arber Xhekaj |
#47 Jayden Struble |
| Starter |
Backup |
| #75 Jakub Dobeṧ |
#35 Samuel Montembeault |
Injured: David Savard
Ill: Patrik Laine
Washington Capitals projected lineup
| Left Wing |
Centre |
Right Wing |
| Alexander Ovechkin |
Dylan Strome |
Aliaksei Protas |
| Connor McMichael |
Pierre-Luc Dubois |
Tom Wilson |
| Ivan Miroshnichenko |
Lars Eller |
Taylor Raddysh |
| Brandon Duhaime |
Nic Dowd |
Andrew Mangiapane |
| Left Defence |
Right Defence |
| Rasmus Sandin |
John Carlson |
| Jakob Chychrun |
Trevor van Riemsdyk |
| Martin Fehervary |
Matt Roy |
| Starter |
Backup |
| Charlie Lindgren |
Logan Thompson |
