Game 79: Montreal Canadiens @ Ottawa Senators
Start time: 7:00 PM EDT / 4:00 PM PDT
In Canada: Sportsnet East/Ontario/West (English)
In the Canadiens/Senators regions: RDS (French)
Streaming: ESPN+, RDS, Sportsnet+
It’s been a season of surprises from the Montreal Canadiens. Not only did the team jump from a ranking of 28th in the league last year, its third consecutive finish in the bottom five, to now sitting on the verge of claiming a playoff spot, it will also have the player that low finish last year brought to the organization. Ivan Demidov is waiting to join the team on Saturday, adding arguably the top prospect in the NHL to a club that has just won six games in a row.
The best welcome the team could provide him is zero stress after clinching a post-season place. They can create that situation for themselves this evening if they get a seventh win in a row and complete a series sweep of the Ottawa Senators with a fourth regulation win over their Atlantic Division rival.
Ottawa is still without Brady Tkachuk who, like his brother Matthew, has carried ab ailment from the 4 Nations back to his NHL team and has some uncertainty about his level of health for the playoffs. But even without him the Senators were able to claim big wins over the Tampa Bay Lightning, Florida Panthers, and Columbus Blue Jackets. They won’t have that same drive for this game with their spot secured, but they are still a dangerous foe standing between the Canadiens and their playoff desires.
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 |
| #92 Patrik Laine |
#15 Alex Newhook |
#91 Oliver Kapanen |
| #51 Emil Heineman |
#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: Michael Pezzetta, Joshua Roy, Arber Xhekaj
Patiently waiting: Ivan Demidov
Injured: Kirby Dach
Ottawa Senators projected lineup
| Left Wing |
Centre |
Right Wing |
| David Perron |
Tim Stützle |
Drake Batherson |
| Fabian Zetterlund |
Dylan Cozens |
Claude Giroux |
| Ridly Greig |
Shane Pinto |
Michael Amadio |
| Matthew Highmore |
Adam Gaudette |
Nick Cousins |
| Left Defence |
Right Defence |
| Jake Sanderson |
Artem Zub |
| Thomas Chabot |
Nick Jensen |
| Tyler Kleven |
Nikolas Matinpalo |
| Starter |
Backup |
| Linus Ullmark |
Anton Forsberg |
