Game 1: Montreal Canadiens @ Toronto Maple Leafs
How to watch
Start time: 7:00 PM EDT / 4:00 PM PDT
In Canada: Sportsnet (English), TVA Sports (French)
Streaming: ESPN+, Sportsnet Now
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The 2023-24 season begins for all seven Canadian teams on Wednesday night, and the Canadiens and Maple Leafs are first up as the feature matchup.
The Canadiens don’t look a whole lot different from the team that finished 28th a season ago, but they did have a much stronger finish compared to a woeful start, and bring the majority of their players back after a long off-season to work on their weaknesses. The young defence corps having a full season of NHL experience under its belt should set the players up for better results.
Toronto has seen quite a bit of turnover from last year’s squad, spending the summer adding more grit to the formation in the forms of Ryan Reaves, Tyler Bertuzzi, and Max Domi, but also adding John Klingberg on the back end to provide even more of an offensive punch.
The two clubs recently met in one of the final pre-season games with close to their full lineups on the ice, a game the Canadiens came back to win in overtime, The score is always close between these two sides when they get together, and even though expectations are very different for the two teams this season, tonight’s game should be no different.
Montreal Canadiens projected lineup
| Left Wing | Centre | Right Wing |
|---|---|---|
| #22 Cole Caufield | #14 Nick Suzuki | #17 Josh Anderson |
| #35 Alex Newhook | #77 Kirby Dach | #20 Juraj Slafkovský |
| #70 Tanner Pearson | #91 Sean Monahan | #11 Brendan Gallagher |
| #49 Rafaël Harvey-Pinard | #71 Jake Evans | #56 Jesse Ylönen |
| Left Defence | Right Defence |
|---|---|
| #8 Mike Matheson | #58 David Savard |
| #21 Kaiden Guhle | #26 Johnny Kovacevic |
| #72 Arber Xhekaj | $54 Jordan Harris |
| Starter | Backup |
|---|---|
| #34 Jake Allen | #35 Samuel Montembeault |
Scratched: Michael Pezzetta, Justin Barron, Cayden Primeau
Injured: Christian Dvorak, Chris Wideman
Toronto Maple Leafs projected lineup
| Left Wing | Centre | Right Wing |
|---|---|---|
| Tyler Bertuzzi | Auston Matthews | Mitch Marner |
| Max Domi | John Tavares | William Nylander |
| Matthew Knies | Fraser Minten | Calle Jarnkrok |
| Noah Gregor | David Kampf | Ryan Reaves |
| Left Defence | Right Defence |
|---|---|
| Morgan Rielly | T.J. Brodie |
| Jake McCabe | John Klingberg |
| Mark Giordano | Timothy Liljegren |
| Starter | Backup |
|---|---|
| Ilya Samsonov | Joseph Woll |
