Credit: Eric Bolte-Imagn Images

Game 28: Montreal Canadiens vs. St. Louis Blues

Start time: 7:00 PM EST / 4:00 PM PST
In the Canadiens region: TSN2 (English), RDS (French)
In the Blue region: FanDuel Sports Network Midwest
Streaming: ESPN+, RDS, TSN+

News came out before the game that Samuel Montembeault is dealing with an illness. That means that Jakub Dobeš, backed up tonight by Kaapo Kähkönen, will be thrust into a difficult situation of playing both games of a back-to-back, and likely also will be relied upon to play on Tuesday versus the Tampa Bay Lightning. The good news is that he had a relatively light workload last night when the Toronto Maple Leafs only had 23 shots, so he will be fine to start, but the Canadiens will need to be focused on trying to give him a simple job in the crease to prevent fatigue from hitting him as the game goes on.

The Blues aren’t a team that has been lighting up goaltenders this season with just 73 goals on the year, and rank 28th in shots per game. They’ve scored two or fewer goals in 10 of their last 11 games.

Tonight’s game is one of the most winnable on a difficult December schedule for Montreal. The Canadiens have already managed to knock off a couple of teams that give them trouble in the Winnipeg Jets and Toronto Maple Leafs. Extending their run to a three-game winning streak would set them up well for four tough games next week.

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
#34 Kaapo Kähkönen

Injured/Ill: Kirby Dach, Kaiden Guhle, Patrik Laine, Samuel Montembeault, Alex Newhook

St. Louis Blues projected lineup

Left Wing
Centre
Right Wing

Jake Neighbours
Robert Thomas
Pavel Buchnevich

Dylan Holloway
Dalibor Dvorsky
Mathieu Joseph

Pius Suter
Brayden Schenn
Matt Luff

Aleksanteri Kaskimaki
Oskar Sundqvist
Nick Bjugstad

Left Defence
Right Defence

Philip Broberg
Colton Parayko

Tyler Tucker
Justin Faulk

Cam Fowler
Logan Mailloux

Starter
Backup

Jordan Binnington
Joel Hofer