Pre-season game 6: Montreal Canadiens @ Ottawa Senators
Start time: 7:00 PM EDT / 4:00 PM PDT
In the Canadiens region: RDS (French)
In the Senators region: TSN5 (English), RDS (French)
Streaming: ESPN+, RDS, TSN+
Not surprisingly given that the Montreal Canadiens have had two players be the victim of bad hits early in the past two games, Martin St-Louis has decided to keep his best players off the ice for Saturday’s game, the final match the Canadiens will play in the pre-season.
A report yesterday stated that Kent Hughes would be speaking to Ottawa Senators general manager Steve Staios about keeping this game civil, but even if that did transpire, the coach wants to have as many of his good players as possible for the first game that means something, an opening night contest with the Toronto Maple Leafs at the Bell Centre.
None of Cole Caufield, Nick Suzuki (who went on record to say he wanted to play this game), Juraj Slafkovsky, Kirby Dach, and Mike Matheson will play. Also out of the lineup is Lane Hutson, which may be an indication that he has already made the team and doesn’t need this final match to make an impression.
Kaiden Guhle, will play his first and only pre-season game after undergoing an appendectomy before the tune-up games began. Much of the lineup will be constructed of AHL players, an oddity for the final match that is usually the one time that the full lineup comes together ahead of the regular campaign. Lucas Condotta, Brandon Gignac, and William Trudeau have been recalled for the game.
Notably, Arber Xhekaj, who landed a big, hit on Tim Stötzle in response to Ridly Greig’s high hit on Kirby Dach on Tuesday, will be in the lineup. Xhekaj has been given a game misconduct in each of the past two games he’s played.
Montreal Canadiens projected lineup
| Left Wing | Centre | Right Wing |
|---|---|---|
| #11 Brendan Gallagher | #71 Jake Evans | #17 Josh Anderson |
| #35 Alex Newhook | #91 Oliver Kapanen | #89 Joshua Roy |
| #51 Emil Heineman | #28 Christian Dvorak | #27 Alex Barré-Boulet |
| #55 Michael Pezzetta | #74 Brandon Gignac | #82 Lucas Condotta |
| Left Defence | Right Defence |
|---|---|
| #42 Adam Engström | #21 Kaiden Guhle |
| #72 Arber Xhekaj | #94 Logan Mailloux |
| #84 William Trudeau | #52 Justin Barron |
| Starter | Backup |
|---|---|
| #35 Samuel Montembeault | #75 Jakub Dobeṧ |
