Game 31: Montreal Canadiens vs. Buffalo Sabres
Start time: 7:00 PM EST / 4:00 PM PST
In the Canadiens region: TSN2 (English), RDS (French)
In the Sabres region: MSG Buffalo
Streaming: ESPN+, RDS, TSN+
There is good news for the Buffalo Sabres, who are mired in a 10-game losing streak: captain Rasmus Dahlin is just about ready to return to the lineup after sustaining an injury in early December. That’s not slated to happen until at least Friday, so tonight in Montreal the remaining players will have to try on their own to end the run of losses.
Montreal returns to the Bell Centre after one game away, a match in which Lane Hutson scored his first NHL goal. He got a small indication of what the reaction would be at home thanks to some Habs fans in attendance at Canada Life Center, but now he’s eager to hear the full home crowd get involved. He knows he can score at the NHL level now — against arguably its best goaltender — so expect a lot of shots from #48 tonight.
Cole Caufield would like to hear that roar as well. He has just one goal in his past six games after ranking right among the top scorers in the league in the opening quarter of the season. He has just six shots in his last three matches, and that’s unlike him to have so few attempts on goal. A Sabres team that has a hard enough time defending even with Dahlin in the lineup should provide a favourable situation for him to launch a few more pucks tonight.
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 |
| #17 Josh Anderson |
#28 Christian Dvorak |
#11 Brendan Gallagher |
| #51 Emil Heineman |
#71 Jake Evans |
#40 Joel Armia |
| Left Defence |
Right Defence |
| #48 Lane Hutson |
#8 Mike Matheson |
| #21 Kaiden Guhle |
#52 Justin Barron |
| #72 Arber Xhekaj |
#58 David Savard |
| Starter |
Backup |
| #35 Samuel Montembeault |
#30 Cayden Primeau |
Scratched: Michael Pezzetta, Jayden Struble
Buffalo Sabres projected lineup
| Left Wing |
Centre |
Right Wing |
| Zach Benson |
Tage Thompson |
Alex Tuch |
| J.J. Peterka |
Dylan Cozens |
Jack Quinn |
| Jiri Kulich |
Ryan McLeod |
Jason Zucker |
| Beck Malenstyn |
Peyton Krebs |
Nicolas Audé-Kubel |
| Left Defence |
Right Defence |
| Owen Power |
Mattias Samuelsson |
| Henri Jokiharju |
Bowen Byram |
| Jacob Bryson |
Connor Clifton |
| Starter |
Backup |
| Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen |
James Reimer |
