Thursday night in Montreal, the Canadiens fell short to their division rival Ottawa Senators in exhibition action. Pre-season though it may be, the Habs will enter the Canadian Tire Centre this afternoon in hopes of returning the favour.
The team has yet to meaningfully trim down it’s roster, with only Giovanni Fiore being released from training camp thus far. More cuts are expected today as the opening day roster begins to take shape.
How to Watch
Start Time: 3:00 PM ET
In the Canadiens region (French): RDS
Elsewhere: NHL GameCentre Live, NHL Center Ice
As of now, it remains unknown who will line up for the Canadiens as they take to the ice in Ottawa, but if Thursday’s game is any indication the club is wasting little time getting their regulars out there together. The team featured its likely top nine forwards in that game, with the notable exceptions of a suspended Andrew Shaw and an under-the-weather Alexander Radulov.
Of course, it is not unusual for teams to ice a better roster at home during the pre-season than they do on the road, so this game could serve as a last-chance audition for some players still on the bubble.
Nevertheless, we can consider some possibilities. Andrei Markov and Alexei Emelin have each returned from the World Cup of Hockey and have yet to play a pre-season game in a Habs uniform. It stands to reason that they’ll need to see some action and could draw into this afternoon’s lineup after a skeleton crew made up the Habs blue-line on Thursday.
The Habs projected fourth line of Torrey Mitchell, Paul Byron, and Phillip Danault was notably absent from Thursday night’s lineup and should be considered likely to suit up today as a result.
As always in these games, the focus will be on those players battling for one of few available roster spots. With the likes of Zach Redmond and Greg Pateryn making for increasingly difficult decision, it seems reasonably to suspect Michel Therrien will want to see as much of those players as he can before his hand is forced.
While the Habs lineup remains, for now, a mystery, we do know who they will line up against. The Senators forward group will look remarkably similar to the one that played at the Bell Centre on Thursday, with the most notable addition being perennial pest Chris Neil.
It’s on defence where the Habs will notice the biggest change in their opponents, as Erik Karlsson, Marc Methot, and Dion Phaneuf are all expected to draw in this afternoon – undoubtedly making things tougher for a Canadiens side looking for redemption.
Update: The Habs have released their roster for this afternoon’s game
