Game 35: Montreal Canadiens @ Florida Panthers
Start time: **1:00 PM EST / 10:00 AM PST**
In Canada: TSN2 (English), RDS (French)
In the Panthers region: SCRIPPS Sports
Streaming: ESPN+, RDS, TSN+
In the first game after Christmas, we get to witness Jakub Dobes’s NHL debut. He will be the new backup in Montreal going forward, and there are a couple of back-to-backs, including this weekend’s, when he will get to show what he can do. He faces Spencer Knight, another young goalie, who has a 3-1-1 record in his past five games.
Today’s game begins the toughest stretch of the season for Montreal: five consecutive games on the road, and eight of their next 10, with not only the Panthers but the Tampa Bay Lightning, Vegas Golden Knights, Colorado Avalanche, Washington Capitals, and Dallas Stars — twice — on the schedule in that time. It will take a lot for Montreal to pull back into the playoff race with such strong teams opposing them, but we will see on January 16 where they stand in the chase.
Montreal is coming into the game after playing well recently, especially since adding Alexandre Carrier to the blue line. With Patrik Laine in the fold (able to play after leaving the last game), they have a chance to claw back a goal or two if they fall behind, so they may just be able to hang with a team that ranks right among the league’s best this season.
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 |
| #51 Emil Heineman |
#71 Jake Evans |
#40 Joel Armia |
| #17 Josh Anderson |
#28 Christian Dvorak |
#11 Brendan Gallagher |
| Left Defence |
Right Defence |
| #48 Lane Hutson |
#8 Mike Matheson |
| #21 Kaiden Guhle |
#45 Alexandre Carrier |
| #72 Arber Xhekaj |
#58 David Savard |
| Starter |
Backup |
| #75 Jakub Dobeṧ |
#35 Samuel Montembeault |
Scratched: Michael Pezzetta, Jayden Struble
Florida Panthers projected lineup
| Left Wing |
Centre |
Right Wing |
| Evan Rodrigues |
Aleksander Barkov |
Sam Reinhart |
| Carter Verhaeghe |
Sam Bennett |
Matthew Tkachuk |
| Eetu Luostarinen |
Anton Lundell |
Jesper Boqvist |
| A.J. Greer |
Tomas Nosek |
Mackie Samoskevich |
| Left Defence |
Right Defence |
| Gustav Forsling |
Aaron Ekblad |
| Dmitry Kulikov |
Adam Boqvist |
| Nate Schmidt |
Uvis Balinskis |
| Starter |
Backup |
| Spencer Knight |
Sergei Bobrovsky |
