The preseason comes to an end on Saturday night as the Habs travel to Ottawa for a rematch against the Senators. Here are tonight’s game notes.
These two teams met at the Bell Centre on Thursday night and while the Habs got off to a strong start, they weren’t able to hold on, allowing five unanswered goals in a 5-2 loss. Andrei Markov and Nathan Beaulieu scored for the Canadiens in a game where Montreal doubled up the visitors in shots 42-21. Bobby Ryan tallied for Ottawa in the 3-on-3 overtime scrimmage.
October 1st Boxscore: Ottawa 5, Montreal 2
Projected Montreal Lines:
(Based on Montreal’s game day roster)
Pacioretty – Plekanec – Gallagher
Eller – Galchenyuk – Kassian
Fleischmann – Desharnais – Weise
de la Rose – Mitchell – Smith-Pelly
Beaulieu – Petry
Emelin – Gilbert
Tinordi – Pateryn
Tokarski
Projected Ottawa Lines:
(Based on Ottawa’s game day skate units)
Hoffman – Turris – Stone
Michalek – Zibanejad – Ryan
MacArthur – Pageau – Lazar
Chiasson – Smith – Neil
Wiercioch – Karlsson
Methot – Ceci
Cowen – Borowiecki
O’Connor
Other Notes:
– Alex Semin is the one regular forward not participating. He took a therapy day in practice on Friday.
– Andrei Markov left practice early on Friday as well although Michel Therrien noted it’s nothing major. He probably wasn’t likely to play in this one anyway.
– Mark Barberio is a healthy scratch for the second straight game. Either that’s a sign he’s made the team or a sign that he’s getting cut. My guess would be the latter.
– Montreal’s AHL affiliate in St. John’s earned their first win of the preseason on Friday night, defeating Toronto 5-2, squaring the Coleman Cup at one game apiece. Daniel Carr led the way with a pair of goals while Connor Crisp earned himself a ‘Gordie Howe hat trick.’ The rubber match goes on Sunday afternoon.
Puck drop is at 7 PM EST on RDS and TSN5. Both networks are in the Montreal viewing region only, however, many Canadian carriers have NHL Centre Ice on free preview.