Game 65: Montreal Canadiens vs. Columbus Blue Jackets
Start time: 7:00 PM EDT / 4:00 PM PDT
In the Canadiens region: TSN2 (English), RDS (French)
In the Blue Jackets region: Bally Sports Ohio
Streaming: ESPN+, RDS, TSN+
The two teams that take to the ice at the Bell Centre tonight only have draft-lottery positioning to play for now, but they’re not playing like teams with one eye on Macklin Celebrini — probably because they’re not. The Blue Jackets and Canadiens are teams with a good group of young players already in their lineups with more on the way, and they want to finish the season strong before having to wait through a long off-season for the reset of a new year.
That doesn’t mean this game is going to be at the same quality both teams have been displaying versus tough teams. It’s easy to get motivated for contests when you’re a significant underdog, but less so when it’s just another team of your lowly standing on the opposite site. The Canadiens are probably already thinking about their game against Boston on Thursday and then a long Western Conference road trip that follows, and may not be as engaged as we’ve come to expect.
Cayden Primeau will hope they are, as they have been for most of his recent starts. They played quite well in front of him versus the Tampa Bay Lightning, and he rewarded them by getting the game to a shootout. Some goal support would be welcome, but the Canadiens first need to solve an in-form Elvis Merzlikins to get on the board.
Montreal Canadiens projected lineup
| Left Wing |
Centre |
Right Wing |
| #22 Cole Caufield |
#14 Nick Suzuki |
#20 Juraj Slafkovský |
| #89 Joshua Roy |
#35 Alex Newhook |
#40 Joel Armia |
| #11 Brendan Gallagher |
#71 Jake Evans |
#17 Josh Anderson |
| #55 Michael Pezzetta |
#49 Rafaël Harvey-Pinard |
#70 Tanner Pearson |
| Left Defence |
Right Defence |
| #8 Mike Matheson |
#21 Kaiden Guhle |
| #72 Arber Xhekaj |
#58 David Savard |
| #47 Jayden Struble |
#26 Johnny Kovacevic |
| Starter |
Backup |
| #30 Cayden Primeau |
#35 Samuel Montembeault |
njured: Kirby Dach, Christian Dvorak, Colin White, Chris Wideman
Scratched: Jordan Harris, Jesse Ylönen
Columbus Blue Jackets projected lineup
| Left Wing |
Centre |
Right Wing |
| Johnny Gaudreau |
Boone Jenner |
Yegor Chinakhov |
| Trey Fix-Wolansky |
Dmitri Voronkov |
Kirill Marchenko |
| Alexandre Texier |
Cole Sillinger |
Alexander Nylander |
| Carson Meyer |
Sean Kuraly |
Mathieu Olivier |
| Left Defence |
Right Defence |
| Zach Werenski |
Adam Boqvist |
| Ian Provorov |
Damon Severson |
| Jake Bean |
Erik Gudbranson |
| Starter |
Backup |
| Elvis Merzlikins |
Daniil Tarasov |
