Credit: Eric Bolte-Imagn Images

Game 43: Montreal Canadiens vs. Calgary Flames

Start time: 7:30 PM EST / 4:30 PM PST
In Canada: Sportsnet (English)
In the Canadiens region: RDS (French)
Streaming: ESPN+, RDS, Sportsnet+

The Montreal Canadiens return home to play a game at the Bell Centre for the first time in 18 days. When the Habs left for Pittsburgh after the match on December 20, they were one point up on the first team sitting outside of the wild-card race. Now, after seven games that saw them go 4-1-2 versus some tough teams, that edge has grown to four as they start to separate from the pack as one of the top teams in the Eastern Conference.

Another test of that new standing comes tomorrow versus the Florida Panthers. Today, however, it’s the Calgary Flames in town, and this start will go to Jacob Fowler as Martin St-Louis taps his youngest goaltender to get the first home start of 2026.

Calgary ended a five-game post-Christmas homestand with a couple of losses to undo their effort to get back to .500 before the new year. Struggling to find consistency, they will try to turn things around in Montreal to kick off a five-game road trip. They will be eager to get back in the win column, and the Canadiens will need to be prepared.

Montreal Canadiens projected lineup

Left Wing
Centre
Right Wing

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

#13 Cole Caufield
#14 Nick Suzuki
#85 Alexandre Texier

#76 Zachary Bolduc
#24 Phillip Danault
#11 Brendan Gallagher

#27 Sammy Blais
#90 Joe Veleno
#62 Owen Beck

Left Defence
Right Defence

#8 Mike Matheson
#53 Noah Dobson

#48 Lane Hutson
#45 Alexandre Carrier

#72 Arber Xhekaj
#47 Jayden Struble

Starter
Backup

#32 Jacob Fowler
#75 Jakub Dobeš

Scratched: Adam Engström, Samuel Montembeault
Injured: Josh Anderson, Kirby Dach, Jake Evans, Kaiden Guhle, Patrik Laine, Alex Newhook

Calgary Flames projected lineup

Left Wing
Centre
Right Wing

Joel Farabee
Nazem Kadri
Yegor Sharangovich

Jonathan Huberdeau
Morgan Frost
Adam Klapka

Blake Coleman
Mikael Baklund
Matt Coronato

Ryan Lomberg
Connor Zary
William Stromgren

Left Defence
Right Defence

Kevin Bahl
Rasmus Andersson

Yan Kuznetsov
MacKenzie Weegar

Joel Hanley
Hunter Brzustewicz

Starter
Backup

Dustin Wolf
Devin Cooley