Game 33: Montreal Canadiens vs. Detroit Red Wings
Start time: 7:00 PM EST / 4:00 PM PST
In Canada: CityTV, Sportsnet East (English), TVA Sports (French)
In the Red Wings region: FanDuel Sports Network Detroit
Streaming: ESPN+, Sportsnet+
One night after Patrik Laine and the Montreal Canadiens beat the Detroit Red Wings with a third-period comeback, they host the same team at the Bell Centre before they start their string of road games around the holidays. Should the Habs win the game tonight in any fashion, they will pass Detroit in the standings to move up to sixth in the Atlantic Division.
It has been confirmed that Samuel Montembeault will start for the second night in a row, a rare thing in the modern NHL. and especially so for a Canadiens team that was rotating three goalies a season ago. If he does get the win, he may get the night off in Columbus on Monday versus a non-divisional opponent, but even then you couldn’t rule out a third start in four days for the netminder ahead of the Christmas break.
Tonight he will probably be busier than he was last night as the Red Wings won’t want to lose back-to-back games against a team that started the weekend set lower than them in the standings. Montreal started last night’s game well with Jake Evans’s line in particular setting the tone early, and that will need to be the case once more to match the intensity on the opposite side.
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 |
| #35 Samuel Montembeault |
#30 Cayden Primeau |
Scratched: Michael Pezzetta, Jayden Struble
Detroit Red Wings projected lineup
| Left Wing |
Centre |
Right Wing |
| Vladimir Tarasenko |
Dylan Larkin |
Lucas Raymond |
| Alex DeBrincat |
Andrew Copp |
Patrick Kane |
| Michael Rasmussen |
J.T. Compher |
Tyler Motte |
| Joe Veleno |
Marco Kasper |
Christian Fischer |
| Left Defence |
Right Defence |
| Ben Chiarot |
Moritz Seider |
| Justin Holl |
Jeff Petry |
| Albert Johansson |
Erik Gustafsson |
| Starter |
Backup |
| Alex Lyon |
Cam Talbot |
