Canadiens vs. Sharks: Game thread, rosters, lines, and how to watch

Montreal Canadiens vs. San Jose Sharks

How to watch

Start time: 7:00 PM EST / 4:00 PM PST
In the Canadiens region: TSN2 (English), RDS (French)
In the Sharks region: NBC Sports San Diego

It’s clear that Martin St-Louis isn’t a coach who insists that you don’t mess with a winning lineup. Following two wins, impressive in that they came in the letter two contests of a three-games-in-less-than-four-days period, he’s followed through on his comments that the Canadiens would run a rotation of defencemen with so many healthy bodies on the blue line.

That’s welcome news for Jordan Harris, who didn’t play in either of those recent wins, last on the ice for a difficult night versus the Buffalo Sabres. He hasn’t played in a week, and maybe that time off was necessary as he had been seeing some defensive lapses after a rock-solid opening month to the season. The rest may help him get back to that form, and Johnny Kovacevic will give him a familiar partner to work with in his return.

If you’ve only followed the Sharks by the reports of Erik Karlsson’s resurgence this season, you would think Harris and the Habs’ defence corps is in for a tough match versus a historically difficult opponent. Yet the Habs and Sharks have nearly identical goals-per-game averages, and the Sharks are slightly worse on the defensive side. If Jake Allen can rebound from a stretch of relatively poor play by his standards, failing to hit a .900 save percentage since November 8, the Habs could earn the victory and head out to Western Canada feeling confident about their game.

Montreal Canadiens projected lineup

Forwards

Defencemen

Goaltenders

Scratched: Chris Wideman, Arber Xhekaj
Injured: Paul Byron, Jonathan Drouin, Mike Hoffman

San Jose Sharks projected lineup

Forwards

Defencemen

Goaltenders