Montreal Canadiens @ Edmonton Oilers
How to watch
Start time: 7:00 PM EST / 4:00 PM PST
In Canada: CBC, CityTV, Sportsnet 360 (English), TVA Sports (French)
Streaming: ESPN+, NHL Live, Sportsnet Now
Having a winning streak snapped on Tuesday, the Montreal Canadiens decided to start a new one on Thursday night. They went up against not just one of the top teams in the league, but one of the clubs playing the best at this moment in the season, and went blow-for-blow with the Calgary Flames, coming away with an overtime win.
To win again tonight means splitting the season series with the Edmonton Oilers, who won the first game back on January 29. Former Habs head coach Dominique Ducharme infamously stated in that night’s post-game appearance that the Canadiens had at least kept Connor McDavid off the scoresheet — in a 7-2 loss.
Even if the Canadiens manage to keep the score closer this time, shutting down McDavid completely isn’t a realistic goal since he has eight multi-point games since Jay Woodcroft took over behind the bench. With the way the Habs are firing on offence, it isn’t necessary to keep McDavid and/or Leon Draisaitl at zero points, as Montreal has been regularly hitting three goals per game in recent weeks. They’d still like to avoid a high-scoring game versus two of the league’s superstars, but at this point you can’t count the Habs out of such a battle.
Montreal Canadiens projected lineup
Forwards
| Left Wing |
Centre |
Right Wing |
| Cole Caufield |
Nick Suzuki |
Josh Anderson |
| Mike Hoffman |
Laurent Dauphin |
Brendan Gallagher |
| Artturi Lehkonen |
Rem Pitlick |
Joel Armia |
| Michael Pezzetta |
Ryan Poehling |
Mathieu Perreault |
Defencemen
| Left Defence |
Right Defence |
| Brett Kulak |
Jeff Petry |
| Alexander Romanov |
Ben Chiarot |
| Kale Clague |
Chris Wideman |
Goaltenders
| Starter |
Backup |
| Samuel Montembeault |
Cayden Primeau |
Edmonton Oilers projected lineup
Forwards
| Left Wing |
Centre |
Right Wing |
| Ryan McLeod |
Connor McDavid |
Zach Hyman |
| Evander Kane |
Leon Draisaitl |
Kailer Yamamoto |
| Warren Foegele |
Devin Shore |
Derek Ryan |
| Tyler Benson |
Brad Malone |
|
Defencemen
| Left Defence |
Right Defence |
| Darnell Nurse |
Cody Ceci |
| Duncan Keith |
Evan Bouchard |
| Markus Niemelainen |
William Lagesson |
| Philip Broberg |
|
Goaltenders
| Starter |
Backup |
| Mike Smith |
Mikko Koskinen |
