Montreal Canadiens vs. Toronto Maple Leafs
How to watch
Start time: 7:00 PM EST / 4:00 PM PST
In Canada: CBC, Sportsnet, CityTV (English) TVA Sports (French)
In the United States: NHL Network
Streaming: ESPN+, Sportsnet Now
The Toronto Maple Leafs just made a big splash last night, acquiring Ryan O’Reilly from the St. Louis Blues, along with Noel Acciari. Both forwards could be in the lineup tonight, and they’ll hope that’s finally enough firepower to knock off the Habs after an 0-2 start to the season series.
Montreal would love to have Kirby Dach in the lineup to provide the best shot versus a loaded Leafs lineup, but he remains out with the illness that forced him to miss Thursday’s game in Carolina. At least the Canadiens will have Josh Anderson in action, a player who always enjoys playing the Maple Leafs, given a chance to use his speed versus a defence corps that struggles with his rush offence.
Speaking of struggling defencemen, Chris Wideman will be a healthy scratch after an extremely difficult night in Carolina. Kent Hughes has called up Corey Schueneman from the AHL to take Wideman’s place, expecting a better showing than the -4 rating for Wideman in what was a close game — on the scoreboard at least — after two periods in Raleigh.
The Canadiens are going to be in tough to make it three wins in three tries versus Toronto this season to secure the four-game season series, but this is one of the opponents the Habs get fully engaged for, so we shouldn’t assume this will just be another tick in the loss column.
Montreal Canadiens projected lineup
Forwards
| Left Wing | Centre | Right Wing |
|---|---|---|
| #49 Rafaël Harvey-Pinard | #14 Nick Suzuki | #17 Josh Anderson |
| #40 Joel Armia | #28 Christian Dvorak | #27 Jonathan Drouin |
| #63 Evgenii Dadonov | #60 Alex Belzile | #68 Mike Hoffman |
| #55 Michael Pezzetta | #32 Rem Pitlick | #56 Jesse Ylönen |
Defencemen
| Left Defence | Right Defence |
|---|---|
| #8 Mike Matheson | #52 Justin Barron |
| $54 Jordan Harris | #58 David Savard |
| #64 Corey Schueneman | #26 Johnny Kovacevic |
Goaltenders
| Starter | Backup |
|---|---|
| #34 Jake Allen | #35 Samuel Montembeault |
Scratched: Chris Wideman
Injured/Ill: Paul Byron, Cole Caufield, Kirby Dach, Joel Edmundson, Jake Evans, Brendan Gallagher, Kaiden Guhle, Sean Monahan, Juraj Slafkovský, Arber Xhekaj
Toronto Maple Leafs projected lineup
Forwards
| Left Wing | Centre | Right Wing |
|---|---|---|
| Michael Bunting | Auston Matthews | William Nylander |
| John Tavares | Ryan O’Reilly | Mitch Marner |
| Pierre Engvall | David Kampf | Calle Jarnkrok |
| Zach Aston-Reese | Noel Acciari | Alex Kerfoot |
Defencemen
| Left Defence | Right Defence |
|---|---|
| Morgan Rielly | T.J. Brodie |
| Mark Giordano | Timothy Liljegren |
| Rasmus Sandin | Justin Holl |
Goaltenders
| Starter | Backup |
|---|---|
| Joseph Woll | Erik Kallgren |