Credit: David Kirouac-Imagn Images

Game 58: Montreal Canadiens vs. New York Islanders

Start time: 7:00 PM EST / 4:00 PM PST
In the Canadiens region: TSN2 (English), RDS (French)
In the Islanders region: MSGSN
Streaming: ESPN+, RDS, TSN+

The Montreal Canadiens and New York Islanders have taken very different paths to similar places in the standings. The Canadiens sport the NHL’s third-best offence, overcoming the defensive errors they make and their substandard goaltending by scoring enough goals to counter those shortcomings. The Islanders are the league’s third-best defence, backed by the stellar play of Ilya Sorokin in net to allow just 2.71 goals per game, and that’s helping a below-average offence score just enough goals to win games.

Sorokin’s counterpart will be Samuel Montembeault tonight as Montreal comes out of the break hoping their regular starter is back on form. Montembeault looked strong in the last game before the Olympics, allowing just one goal to the Winnipeg Jets. It would take a lot of pressure off the team if he could be the player he had been the previous two seasons and make timely saves to prevent the odd goal against.

It would also be helpful if Brendan Gallagher could play the way he did in that game in Winnipeg. On a night when none of Montreal’s top scorers hit the scoresheet, he had three points to help lead the victory. The Canadiens are receiving great production from Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield, and exceptional five-on-five offence from Juraj Slafkovský, Ivan Demidov, and Oliver Kapanen. Alex Newhook’s return will change the offensive outlook of the third line, so if Gallagher, Phillip Danault, and Josh Anderson can also be regular contributors on the fourth line, that might propel the offence even higher down this final stretch toward the post-season.

Montreal Canadiens projected lineup

Left Wing
Centre
Right Wing

#13 Cole Caufield
#14 Nick Suzuki
#77 Kirby Dach

#20 Juraj Slafkovský
#91 Oliver Kapanen
#93 Ivan Demidov

#15 Alex Newhook
#71 Jake Evans
#85 Alexandre Texier

#17 Josh Anderson
#24 Phillip Danault
#11 Brendan Gallagher

Left Defence
Right Defence

#8 Mike Matheson
#21 Kaiden Guhle

#48 Lane Hutson
#53 Noah Dobson

#47 Jayden Struble
#45 Alexandre Carrier

Starter
Backup

#35 Samuel Montembeault
#75 Jakub Dobeš

Scratched: Zachary Bolduc, Joe Veleno, Arber Xhekaj
Injured: Patrik Laine

New York Islanders projected lineup

Left Wing
Centre
Right Wing

Ondrej Palat
Bo Horvat
Mathew Barzal

Jonathan Drouin
Calum Ritchie
Emil Heineman

Anders Lee
Jean-Gabriel Pageau
Simon Holmstrom

Kyle MacLean
Casey Cizikas
Marc Gatcomb

Left Defence
Right Defence

Matthew Schaefer
Ryan Pulock

Adam Pelech
Tony DeAngelo

Carson Soucy
Scott Mayfield

Starter
Backup

Ilya Sorokin
David Rittich