Game 51: Montreal Canadiens vs. Minnesota Wild
Start time: 7:00 PM EST / 4:00 PM PST
In the Canadiens region: TSN2 (English), RDS (French)
In the Wild region: FanDuel Sports Network North/Wisconsin
Streaming: ESPN+, RDS, TSN+
Life without Kaiden Guhle begins for the Montreal Canadiens tonight as they host the Minnesota Wild in the first game since his injury. Guhle is no stranger to injuries in his career, but on this occasion it was some exceptionally bad luck for him, not just catching his skate in a rut and twisting his knee, but then managing to cut that same knee with his skate. He’ll will be out of the lineup for the foreseeable future, and the team will have to make due without him.
That means that Alexandre Carrier’s importance to the team just went higher than it has already been since his acquisition in December. He’s now the only defenceman you can point to as a true shutdown option on the team (despite David Savard’s reputation as one), and Martin St-Louis will be wishing he could play him for 40 minutes a night.
The team does have Jayden Struble back after his conditioning loan, and in hindsight it was a key decision to let him get some game action and grow a bit of confidence playing for the top team in the AHL. He wants to be part of the solution with Guhle out, and hopefully he can look more like the player who burst onto the scene in his debut stint last season.
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 |
#71 Jake Evans |
#40 Joel Armia |
| #49 Rafaël Harvey-Pinard |
#28 Christian Dvorak |
#11 Brendan Gallagher |
| Left Defence |
Right Defence |
| #8 Mike Matheson |
#45 Alexandre Carrier |
| #72 Arber Xhekaj |
#48 Lane Hutson |
| #47 Jayden Struble |
#58 David Savard |
| Starter |
Backup |
| #75 Jakub Dobeṧ |
#35 Samuel Montembeault |
Scratched: Michael Pezzetta
Injured: Kaiden Guhle, Emil Heineman
Minnesota Wild projected lineup
| Left Wing |
Centre |
Right Wing |
| Matt Boldy |
Joel Eriksson Ek |
Mats Zucarello |
| Marcus Foligno |
Marco Rossi |
Ryan Hartman |
| Liam Ohgren |
Frederick Gaudreau |
Yakov Trenin |
| Devin Shore |
Marat Khusnutdinov |
Jakub Lauko |
| Left Defence |
Right Defence |
| Jacob Middleton |
Brock Faber |
| Declan Chisholm |
Jared Spurgeon |
| Jon Merrill |
Zach Bogosian |
| Starter |
Backup |
| Marc-André Fleury |
Filip Gustavsson |
