Game 72: Montreal Canadiens @ Carolina Hurricanes
Start time: 7:00 PM EDT / 4:00 PM PDT
In the Canadiens region: TSN2 (English), RDS (French)
In the Hurricanes region: FanDuel Sports Network South
Streaming: ESPN+, RDS, TSN+
By this point of the road trip, you would have hoped the Canadiens had at least two points from the game versus the Philadelphia Flyers and perhaps one from a battle with the St. Louis Blues. But as Montreal prepares for the third of four consecutive games away from the Bell Centre they sit on zero. After such a hot stretch over the previous couple of weeks, they have now not earned a win in their last four outings.
It’s not a disastrous slump — they do still hold a playoff spot after all — but it is a concerning one because it looks like fatigue is beginning to creep into the lineup and they still have to play seven more games over the next 12 days before getting another two-day rest. They’re not helping themselves by giving teams early leads in games and trying hard to fight back. It’s draining enough to expend so much energy with late pushes, and only moreso when those efforts prove not enough, as they have recently.
There was no word on a return for Kaiden Guhle today, so it seems that that will have to wait until at least Sunday when the Canadiens play the final game of this trip, or perhaps Tuesday when the team returns home and Martin St-Louis has better control of the matchups. For now it seems the team will have to figure out its defensive issues without him, hoping to still sit in a playoff place when this last long road trip has concluded.
Montreal Canadiens projected lineup
| Left Wing |
Centre |
Right Wing |
| #13 Cole Caufield |
#14 Nick Suzuki |
#20 Juraj Slafkovský |
| #17 Josh Anderson |
#28 Christian Dvorak |
#11 Brendan Gallagher |
|
#15 Alex Newhook |
#92 Patrik Laine |
| #51 Emil Heineman |
#71 Jake Evans |
#40 Joel Armia |
| Left Defence |
Right Defence |
| #21 Kaiden Guhle |
#48 Lane Hutson |
| #8 Mike Matheson |
#21 Kaiden Guhle |
| #72 Arber Xhekaj |
#58 David Savard |
| #47 Jayden Struble |
|
| Starter |
Backup |
| #35 Samuel Montembeault |
#75 Jakub Dobeṧ |
Scratched: Michael Pezzetta, Joshua Roy
Injured: Kirby Dach
Carolina Hurricanes projected lineup
| Left Wing |
Centre |
Right Wing |
| Seth Jarvis |
Sebastian Aho |
Jackson Blake |
| Taylor Hall |
Jesperi Kotkaniemi |
Jack Roslovic |
| Jordan Martinook |
Jordan Staal |
Logan Stankoven |
| Eric Robinson |
Mark Jankowski |
Andrei Svechnikov |
| Left Defence |
Right Defence |
| Jaccob Slavin |
Brent Burns |
| Dmitry Orlov |
Jalen Chatfield |
| Shayne Gostisbehere |
Sean Walker |
| Starter |
Backup |
| Frederik Andersen |
Pyotr Kochetkov |
