Bienvenue Montreal!
The Blue Jackets return north of the border to faceoff with Montreal in the first game of the week.
Columbus gets their first road game against the east this month, and this is the final meeting of the season between the two clubs. This game is meant to avoid the season sweep.
Montreal had a busy deadline. They moved on from Nathan Legare, Jan Mysak, Sean Monahan, and Jake Allen. They got back A first, two 3rds, Jacob Perrault, and Arnaud Durandeau. They also got Colin White off waivers from Pittsburgh.
They are continuing to slip and fall toward the lottery. A loss will move Columbus will get them ahead of Ottawa, but the Senators have games in hand. A Columbus win gets them two points behind Montreal.
Columbus has shifted the deck chairs on the Titanic for the bottom six forwards lineups. With Justin Danforth out, Carson Meyer has come up as the spare forward. Captain Brendan Gaunce is the spare forward.
Expect Elvis v Primeau.
Projected Lineups
Montreal Canadiens
Cole Caufield -- Nick Suzuki -- Juraj Slafkovsky Joshua Roy -- Alex Newhook -- Joel Armia Josh Anderson -- Jake Evans -- Brendan Gallagher Michael Pezzetta -- Rafael Harvey-Pinard -- Tanner Pearson
Mike Matheson -- Kaiden Guhle Arber Xhekaj -- David Savard Jayden Struble - Johnathan Kovacevic
Cayden Primeau Sam Montembeault
Scratched: Jesse Ylonen, Jordan Harris
Injured: Colin White (upper body)
Columbus Blue Jackets
Johnny Gaudreau -- Boone Jenner -- Yegor Chinakhov Trey Fix-Wolansky -- Dmitri Voronkov -- Kirill Marchenko Alexandre Texier -- Cole Sillinger -- Alex Nylander Carson Meyer -- Sean Kuraly -- Mathieu Olivier
Zach Werenski -- Adam Boqvist Ivan Provorov -- Damon Severson Jake Bean -- Erik Gudbranson
Elvis Merzlikins Daniil Tarasov
Scratched: Brendan Gaunce
Injured: Adam Fantilli (calf), Patrik Laine (upper body), Justin Danforth (concussion)
Players to Watch
Montreal — Juraj Slafkovsky — many think he’s a first overall bust, but 33 points in 64 games is not a bad output for the season.
Columbus — Carson Meyer — regular season debut
Predicted Final Score
MTL - 3
CBJ - 4