Game 50: Montreal Canadiens vs. Winnipeg Jets
Start time: 7:00 PM EST / 4:00 PM PST
In the Canadiens region: TSN2 (English), RDS (French)
In the Jets region: TSN3
Streaming: ESPN+, RDS, TSN+
It’s 80s night at the Bell Centre this evening, but the Habs will hope they can put an end to the free-wheeling brand of hockey that defined the start of that decade. Teams have been getting too many chances, and early goals, on them in recent weeks, and it’s put the brakes on their rise up the Eastern Conference standings.
The team spent yesterday’s practice working on defensive play, nothing that’s really new to the players, just reminders of the strategies they used to knock off some of the league’s best teams in quick succession from late December to early January.
Lane Hutson, along with his defence partner Mike Matheson, saw the biggest dropoff in their play recently. Hutson will be facing the team against which he scored his first NHL goal tonight, and he, along with the rest of the Habs, hope the game will be just as much about trying to get more points for themselves as it is about the play in their defensive zone.
Montreal Canadiens projected lineup
| Left Wing |
Centre |
Right Wing |
| #13 Cole Caufield |
#14 Nick Suzuki |
#20 Juraj Slafkovský |
| #92 Patrik Laine |
#77 Kirby Dach |
#35 Alex Newhook |
| #17 Josh Anderson |
#71 Jake Evans |
#40 Joel Armia |
| #55 Michael Pezzetta |
#28 Christian Dvorak |
#11 Brendan Gallagher |
| Left Defence |
Right Defence |
| #48 Lane Hutson |
#21 Kaiden Guhle |
| #8 Mike Matheson |
#45 Alexandre Carrier |
| #72 Arber Xhekaj |
#58 David Savard |
| Starter |
Backup |
| #35 Samuel Montembeault |
#75 Jakub Dobeṧ |
Scratched: Rafaël Harvey-Pinard
Conditioning loan: Jayden Struble
Injured: Emil Heineman
Winnipeg Jets projected lineup
| Left Wing |
Centre |
Right Wing |
| Kyle Connor |
Mark Scheifele |
Gabriel Vilardi |
| Nikolaj Ehlers |
Vladislav Nemstnikov |
Cole Perfetti |
| Nino Niederreiter |
Rasmus Kupari |
Mason Appleton |
| Morgan Barron |
David Gustafsson |
Alex Iafallo |
| Left Defence |
Right Defence |
| Josh Morrissey |
Dylan DeMelo |
| Dylan Samberg |
Neal Pionk |
| Logan Stanley |
Haydn Fleury |
| Starter |
Backup |
| Connor Hellebuyck |
Eric Comrie |
