Game 39: Montreal Canadiens vs. New York Rangers
Start time: 7:00 PM EST / 4:00 PM PST
In Canada: Sportsnet East, CityTV (English), TVA Sports (French)
In the Rangers region: MSG 2
Streaming: ESPN+, Sportsnet
Emil Heineman gets into the lineup tonight after yesterday’s recall, and it’s the extra defenceman Johnny Kovacevic who sits once again to make room for him. There will be no more of the 11-forward rotation in this game, and playing will the same linemates all game long will, hopefully, result in a better performance than the team had on Thursday versus the Buffalo Sabres.
Samuel Montembeault gets the start for the Canadiens. He will face the netminder in New York’s goalie tandem who has played the best this season: not 2022 Vezina Trophy-winner Igor Shesterkin, but 2014 Jennings Trophy-winner Jonathan Quick. Perhaps inspired by winning a third Stanley Cup last year with the Vegas Golden Knights, Quick is putting together his best season in a long time, with a 9-2-1 record and .917 save percentage. Montreal scored on him three times each of the previous three times they faced him, and will probably need to net at least that many goals to get a win.
Montreal Canadiens projected lineup
| Left Wing |
Centre |
Right Wing |
| #22 Cole Caufield |
#14 Nick Suzuki |
#20 Juraj Slafkovský |
| #11 Brendan Gallagher |
#71 Jake Evans |
#56 Jesse Ylönen |
| #51 Emil Heineman |
#91 Sean Monahan |
#17 Josh Anderson |
| #55 Michael Pezzetta |
#13 Mitchell Stephens |
#40 Joel Armia |
| Left Defence |
Right Defence |
| #8 Mike Matheson |
#58 David Savard |
| #21 Kaiden Guhle |
#52 Justin Barron |
| #47 Jayden Struble |
$54 Jordan Harris |
| Starter |
Backup |
| #35 Samuel Montembeault |
#34 Jake Allen |
Injured: Kirby Dach, Christian Dvorak, Rafaël Harvey-Pinard, Alex Newhook, Tanner Pearson, Chris Wideman
Scratched: Johnny Kovacevic, Gustav Lindström, Cayden Primeau
New York Rangers projected lineup
| Left Wing |
Centre |
Right Wing |
| Chris Kreider |
Mika Zibanejad |
Blake Wheeler |
| Artemiy Panarin |
Vincent Trocheck |
Alexis Lafrenière |
| Will Cuylle |
Barclay Goodrow |
Jimmy Vesey |
| Brennan Othmann |
Nick Bonino |
Jonny Brodzinski |
| Left Defence |
Right Defence |
| Ryan Lindgren |
Adam Fox |
| K’Andre Miller |
Jacob Trouba |
| Erik Gustafsson |
Braden Schneider |
| Starter |
Backup |
| Jonathan Quick |
Igor Shesterkin |
