Game 68: Montreal Canadiens @ New York Islanders
Start time: 7:30 PM EDT / 4:30 PM PDT
In the Canadiens region: TSN2 (English), RDS (French)
In the Islanders region: MSGSN
Streaming: ESPN+, RDS, TSN+
There aren’t many games left on the schedule in which the Canadiens go head-to-head with teams in the Eastern Conference’s wild-card battle, so tonight’s game versus the New York Islanders is a critical four-point match in that fight. The gap between the teams could be down to just one if the Islanders pull off the regulation win, or the Habs could make it a lengthy gap of five with just 14 games remaining for both teams after this contest.
The clubs are getting production from unlikely sources at the moment. Jean-Gabriel Pageau leads all Islanders players in points since the trade deadline, while in Montreal, Christian Dvorak has been hot with five points in the past two games, including four versus the Ottawa Senators on Tuesday.
A win won’t be any easier from this game than it was in two matches that went beyond 60 minutes earlier in the season. Both clubs want the win just as badly, and the side that gets the most out of its bottom six might be the one to come out on top of this one.
Montreal Canadiens projected lineup
| Left Wing |
Centre |
Right Wing |
| #13 Cole Caufield |
#14 Nick Suzuki |
#20 Juraj Slafkovský |
| #51 Emil Heineman |
#71 Jake Evans |
#40 Joel Armia |
| #89 Joshua Roy |
#15 Alex Newhook |
#92 Patrik Laine |
| #17 Josh Anderson |
#28 Christian Dvorak |
#11 Brendan Gallagher |
| Left Defence |
Right Defence |
| #8 Mike Matheson |
#45 Alexandre Carrier |
| #47 Jayden Struble |
#48 Lane Hutson |
| #72 Arber Xhekaj |
#58 David Savard |
| Starter |
Backup |
| #35 Samuel Montembeault |
#75 Jakub Dobeṧ |
Scratched: Michael Pezzetta
Injured: Kirby Dach, Kaiden Guhle
New York Islanders projected lineup
| Left Wing |
Centre |
Right Wing |
| Simon Holmstrom |
Bo Horvat |
Kyle Palmieri |
| Anders Lee |
Jean-Gabriel Pageau |
Anthony Duclair |
| Pierre Engvall |
Casey cizikas |
Hudson Fasching |
| Maxim Tsyplakov |
Kyle MacLean |
Marc Gatcomb |
| Left Defence |
Right Defence |
| Adam Pelech |
Tony DeAngelo |
| Noah Dobson |
Ryan Pulock |
| Mikey Reilly |
Scott Mayfield |
| Starter |
Backup |
| Ilya Sorokin |
Marcus Hogberg |
