Start time: 7:00 PM EDT / 4:00 PM PDT
In Canada: CityTV, Sportsnet East (English), TVA Sports (French)
In the Panthers region: Scripps
Streaming: ESPN+, TSN+
Montreal has had a couple of days to rest at home after their trip out west. That always seems to do the team good after a busy stretch, so they shouldn’t be feeling too much fatigue on Saturday night when they host the Florida Panthers at the Bell Centre.
The two days have allowed Joel Armia to heal from the injury that held him out of the last game in Seattle, so that line (which I’ve been calling the second for a while now because Jake Evans ranks fourth among forwards in points and was second among centres in average ice time) is reunited and looking to get involved in the scoring again. Despite Evans already tying his career-high point total of 29, he has just two points since the 4 Nations, so Montreal needs him to rediscover some of the offensive touch he showed in December.
Florida hasn’t exactly been filling the net since the break, but they’ve found success with average production thanks to elite level defence in that time, surrendering a mere 12 goals in the nine games since the NHL’s resumption. It’s a tall task for the Habs to score enough to hand them a loss, and it will take a lot more than the top trio playing well to make it happen.
Montreal Canadiens projected lineup
| Left Wing |
Centre |
Right Wing |
| #13 Cole Caufield |
#14 Nick Suzuki |
#20 Juraj Slafkovský |
| #51 Emil Heineman |
#71 Jake Evans |
#40 Joel Armia |
| #89 Joshua Roy |
#15 Alex Newhook |
#92 Patrik Laine |
| #17 Josh Anderson |
#28 Christian Dvorak |
#11 Brendan Gallagher |
| Left Defence |
Right Defence |
| #8 Mike Matheson |
#45 Alexandre Carrier |
| #47 Jayden Struble |
#48 Lane Hutson |
| #72 Arber Xhekaj |
#58 David Savard |
| Starter |
Backup |
| #35 Samuel Montembeault |
#75 Jakub Dobeṧ |
Injured: Joel Armia, Kirby Dach, Kaiden Guhle
Florida Panthers projected lineup
| Left Wing |
Centre |
Right Wing |
| Carter Verhaighe |
aleksander Barkov |
Sam Reinhart |
| Mackie Samoskevich |
Sam Bennett |
Evan Rodrigues |
| Eetu Luostarinen |
Anton Lundell |
Jesper Boqvist |
| A.J. Greer |
Nico Sturm |
Jonah Gadjovich |
| Left Defence |
Right Defence |
| Gustav Forsling |
Seth Jones |
| Niko Mikkola |
Dmitry Kulikov |
| Uvis Balinskis |
Nate Schmidt |
| Starter |
Backup |
| Sergei Bobrovsky |
Vitek Vanecek |
