Habs vs. Senators: Game thread

Jan 31, 2023 - 11:00 PM

Montreal Canadiens vs. Ottawa Senators

How to watch

Start time: 7:00 PM EST / 4:00 PM PST
In the Canadiens region: TSN2 (English), RDS (French)
In the Senators region: TSN5 (English), RDS (French)

After sending Owen Beck down following Saturday’s game, there was some thought that Montreal may make another recall from the Junior ranks for tonight’s contest. That hasn’t transpired, so the Canadiens will once again be going with 11 forwards versus Ottawa, meaning Chris Wideman gets a chance to draw in as a seventh defenceman. Maybe the decision was that they didn’t want a prospect making his debut in the Reverse Retro blue jersey that the team will be wearing tonight.

The jersey curse doesn’t have much to work with this time as the Canadiens were already held scoreless in the first meeting three days ago. A good deal of credit has to go to the Senators for a strong defensive effort that allowed few prime chances from the Canadiens, but Montreal has slipped a bit in their offensive play, and even the line of Michael Pezzetta, Zlex Belzile, and Rafaël Harvey-Pinard couldn’t conjure its usual magic on Saturday,

The Senators are aiming for a repeat performance tonight. They’ve kept their lineup intact from that 5-0 win, and you can’t blame head coach D.J. Smith for trusting the same group that earned one of Ottawa’s best results of the year. Montreal’s game plan will have to be different to prevent them from sweeping this home-and-home series.

Montreal Canadiens projected lineup

Injured: Joel Armia, Paul Byron, Cole Caufield, Jonathan Drouin, Joel Edmundson, Jake Evans, Brendan Gallagher, Kaiden Guhle, Sean Monahan, Juraj Slafkovský

Ottawa Senators projected lineup