Credit: David Kirouac-Imagn Images
Game 26: Montreal Canadiens vs. Winnipeg Jets
Start time: 7:00 PM EST / 4:00 PM PST
In Canada: Sportsnet (English)
In the Canadiens region: RDS (French)
Streaming: ESPN+, RDS, Sportsnet+
Ahead of tonight’s game, the Montreal Canadiens will pay tribute to one of their best defencemen of the modern era. Andrei Markov will have his 990-game NHL career honoured in a ceremony at the Bell Centre. He had 572 points in his career, one of the most reliable producers during an otherwise mediocre period of Habs history.
The festivities will no doubt befit such an important figure of the organization, but the best way for the players to honour his return is to play like the man who finished his career with a +64 goal differential in spite of the quality of many of the rosters he played on. The Habs need every defenceman to step up to a level higher that what they’ve shown in the last few games, focusing on keeping themselves between their man and Jakub Dobeš in net. The Ottawa Senators had too easy a time getting in on Samuel Montembeault last night, and it’s tough to keep an opponent off the scoreboard allowing such dangerous chances.
Montreal will make one change among the skaters this evening from the previous game, swapping out Florian Xhekaj, who just played the last five consecutive games, for Jared Davison, who has been an observer for the past three. While he no doubt wants to show off the offence that highlighted his start to the season in Laval, his best impression will be made by helping the team in the defensive zone with his physical play.
Montreal Canadiens projected lineup
Left Wing
Centre
Right Wing
#13 Cole Caufield
#14 Nick Suzuki
#20 Juraj Slafkovský
#85 Alexandre Texier
#91 Oliver Kapanen
#93 Ivan Demidov
#17 Josh Anderson
#71 Jake Evans
#11 Brendan Gallagher
#49 Jared Davidson
#90 Joe Veleno
#76 Zachary Bolduc
Left Defence
Right Defence
#8 Mike Matheson
#53 Noah Dobson
#47 Jayden Struble
#48 Lane Hutson
#72 Arber Xhekaj
#45 Alexandre Carrier
Starter
Backup
#75 Jakub Dobeš
#35 Samuel Montembeault
Scratched: Adam Engström, Florian Xhekaj
Injured: Kirby Dach, Kaiden Guhle, Patrik Laine, Alex Newhook
Winnipeg Jets projected lineup
Left Wing
Centre
Right Wing
Kyle Connor
Mark Scheifele
Gabriel Vilardi
Vladislav Namestnikov
Jonathan Toews
Cole Perfetti
Nino Niederreiter
Adam Lowry
Alex Iafallo
Cole Koepke
Morgan Barron
Tanner Pearson
Left Defence
Right Defence
Josh Morrissey
Dylan DeMelo
Dylan Samberg
Neal Pionk
Logan Stanley
Lias Salomonsson
Starter
Backup
Eric Comrie
Thomas Milic
