Game 74: Montreal Canadiens vs. Florida Panthers
Start time: 7:00 PM EDT / 4:00 PM PDT
In the Canadiens region: TSN2 (English), RDS (French)
In the Panthers region: Scripps
Streaming: ESPN+, RDS, TSN+
No lineup changes are expected for the Canadiens ahead of the rematch with the Florida Panthers, but the opponent has opted to swap out Sergei Bobrovsky for Vitek Vanecek with a more important game versus the Toronto Maple Leafs on its schedule tomorrow. As much as the Panthers would like to get retribution for the previous loss and finally beat Montreal this season, they have to put all of their focus in the battle for the Atlantic Division lead, a position the Maple Leafs currently occupy.
That means Florida has replaced a goaltender with a .907 save percentage with one sporting an .897 mark and surrendering half a goal more in his starts this season. Vanecek has yet to face the Habs this year as Spencer Knight was on the opposite end of Jakub Dobes’s debut shutout in December and Bobrovsky got both starts in March, so maybe the third goalie is the charm they’re looking for.
Montreal has scored 11 goals in the season series so far and gained a bit of confidence on their power play with a couple of conversions on Sunday. The Canadiens know they can score goals and have even more confidence in their chances against Florida than they did ahead of what was a strong game on the weekend. There’s a chance to sweep all four contests versus the defending champs this year, and the full haul of eight points would be huge in their battle for the final wild-card spot.
Montreal Canadiens projected lineup
| Left Wing |
Centre |
Right Wing |
| #13 Cole Caufield |
#14 Nick Suzuki |
#20 Juraj Slafkovský |
| #17 Josh Anderson |
#28 Christian Dvorak |
#11 Brendan Gallagher |
| #51 Emil Heineman |
#15 Alex Newhook |
#92 Patrik Laine |
| #55 Michael Pezzetta |
#71 Jake Evans |
#40 Joel Armia |
| Left Defence |
Right Defence |
| #21 Kaiden Guhle |
#48 Lane Hutson |
| #8 Mike Matheson |
#45 Alexandre Carrier |
| #47 Jayden Struble |
#58 David Savard |
| Starter |
Backup |
| #35 Samuel Montembeault |
#75 Jakub Dobeṧ |
Scratched: Joshua Roy, Arber Xhekaj
Injured: Kirby Dach
Florida Panthers projected lineup
| Left Wing |
Centre |
Right Wing |
| Carter Verhaeghe |
Aleksander Barkov |
Sam Reinhart |
| Mackie Samoskevich |
Sam Bennett |
Brad Marchand |
| Eetu Luostarinen |
Anton Lundell |
Jesper Boqvist |
| A.J. Greer |
Nico Sturm |
Evan Rodrigues |
| Left Defence |
Right Defence |
| Gustav Forsling |
Seth Jones |
| Niko Mikkola |
Nate Schmidt |
| Tobias Bjornfot |
Uvis Balinskis |
| Starter |
Backup |
| Vitek Vanecek |
Sergei Bobrovsky |
