Canadiens @ Capitals: Game thread, rosters, lines, and how to watch

Montreal Canadiens @ Washington Capitals

How to watch

Start time: **4:00 PM EST / 1:00 PM PST**
In Canadiens: Sportsnet (English), TVA Sports (French)
In the Capitals region: NBC Sports Washington

The Canadiens and Capitals will get an early start on any New Year’s Eve celebrations following a (thankfully) rare afternoon game for Montreal. It’s a 4:00 PM start time in Washington on the penultimate game of this stretch of seven away from the Bell Centre.

The Habs head into Capital One Arena to play in front of fans who are focused on Alexander Ovechkin’s charge up the all-time goals list. Ovechkin has enjoyed plenty of success versus Montreal in his career, and with how the Habs have been playing lately, it’s going to be hard to slow him down.

It will be especially difficult without Kaiden Guhle on the blue line. The rookie defenceman appeared to sustain a knee injury in Thursday’s game versus the Panthers, and is unable to dress for this one. We’ll hope that it’s not a serious issue, because it would be a rough start to 2023 if the Habs have to go for any length of time without one of their best players.

Montreal Canadiens projected lineup

Forwards

Defencemen

Goaltenders

Scratched: Evgenii Dadonov, Anthony Richard
Injured: Paul Byron, Kaiden Guhle, Mike Matheson, Sean Monahan, David Savard

Washington Capitals projected lineup

Forwards

Defencemen

Goaltenders