Credit: David Kirouac-Imagn Images
Game 12: Montreal Canadiens vs. Ottawa Senators
Start time: 7:00 PM EDT / 4:00 PM PDT
In Canada: Sportsnet One (English), TVA Sports (French)
Streaming: ESPN+, Sportsnet+
The Montreal Canadiens return home after earning three wins on their road trip. All three were claimed by Jakub Dobeš, with the one loss going on Samuel Montembeault’s record, though we all know how much of a role the officials played in the game in Edmonton. Nevertheless, Montembeault still allowed six goals in the game, and a total of 14 in his last three starts. The Canadiens need to netminder to get back to the form he’s shown for the past couple of seasons if they want this good start to continue.
Montembeault will face an Ottawa Senators team that had a history of being offensively challenged, but this season has scored four goals in seven of the 12 games played so far. Ottawa has been doing a lot of damage on the power play, which has been the case for a few seasons now with some quality talent they can put together on their man-advantage units. Eight players have power-play goals and four have multiple on the season. Dylan Cozens, who has otherwise been disappointing for them with a -10 rating, has scored seven of his 10 points in that situation.
It’s fair to stay that Montreal staying disciplined is a key to getting out of this game with another two points to extend their division lead.
Montreal Canadiens projected lineup
Left Wing
Centre
Right Wing
#13 Cole Caufield
#14 Nick Suzuki
#20 Juraj Slafkovský
#15 Alex Newhook
#91 Oliver Kapanen
#93 Ivan Demidov
#17 Josh Anderson
#71 Jake Evans
#11 Brendan Gallagher
#76 Zachary Bolduc
#77 Kirby Dach
#90 Joe Veleno
Left Defence
Right Defence
#8 Mike Matheson
#53 Noah Dobson
#47 Jayden Struble
#48 Lane Hutson
#72 Arber Xhekaj
#45 Alexandre Carrier
Starter
Backup
#35 Samuel Montembeault
#75 Jakub Dobeš
Injured: Kaiden Guhle, Patrik Laine
Ottawa Senators projected lineup
Left Wing
Centre
Right Wing
Nick Cousins
Tim Stützle
Drake Batherson
Ridly Greig
Dylan Cozens
David Perron
Michael Amadio
Shane Pinto
Claude Giroux
Kurtis MacDermid
Lars Eller
Fabian Zetterlund
Left Defence
Right Defence
Jake Sanderson
Artem Zub
Thomas Chabot
Nick Jensen
Tyler Kleven
Nikolas Matinpalo
Starter
Backup
Linus Ullmark
Hunter Shepard
