Canadiens vs. Lightning: Game thread, rosters, lines, and how to watch

Montreal Canadiens vs. Tampa Bay Lightning

How to watch

Start time: 7:00 PM EST / 4:00 PM PST
In Canada: CityTV, Sportsnet East (English), TVA Sports (French)
In the Lightning region: Bally Sports Sun

The Canadiens are once again being a frustrating bunch, coming out on the losing end of what are very winnable games because they don’t put in their best effort. The latest saw them the victim of the Anaheim Ducks’ first multi-goal victory of the season. Tonight’s game is the last they will play at the Bell Centre until the new year.

You know Montreal will come out playing a better game tonight with the Tampa Bay Lightning in town. The Habs seem to play some of their best hockey versus one of their southernmost divisional opponents, even when there is a -very obvious difference in the quality of the rosters.

Martin St-Louis sees the depth on the other side and has once more tried to fashion some depth of his own by placing Kirby Dach back at centre. The coach can’t go into this battle with just one line producing and expect a win, so he’s tried to spread the wealth and pray that it all works. Part of that is the decision to scratch Evgenii Dadonov from the lineup. Dadonov has six points in 26 games, and the coach would rather have the energy that Michael Pezzeta brings to the formation.

Montreal gets Mike Matheson back on the blue line to help the team out in all facets of the game, while the Lightning may be missing one of their top blue-liners, former Hab Mikhail Sergachev, who missed his last game and seems likely to miss this one as well. That gives the Canadiens one less dangerous option to worry about, but there are plenty more to contend with on a good Lightning team.

Montreal Canadiens projected lineup

Forwards

Defencemen

Goaltenders

Scratched: Evgenii Dadonov, Chris Wideman
Injured: Paul Byron, Brendan Gallagher, Sean Monahan, David Savard

Tampa Bay Lightning projected lineup

Forwards

Defencemen

Goaltenders