Two fierce rivals, two teams coming into Tuesday night’s contest in a sour mood.

While the Sens are coming off a 6-1 defeat to the Dallas Stars, Montréal was handed a 7-2 drubbing by the West-leading Colorado Avalanche.

These two teams had similar Novembers, with Montréal ending the month on a strong note with a three-game winning streak. The Sens will be looking to avoid a three-game losing streak tonight.

Sens lines

Here’s how the Senators lined up at morning practice:

Tkachuk-Stützle-Zetterlund
Perron-Cozens-Batherson
Amadio-Pinto-Giroux
Cousins/MacDermid-Eller-Greig

Sanderson-Zub
Kleven-Spence
Matinpalo-Jensen
Gilbert

MacDermid last played Nov. 13 against Boston.

— Julian McKenzie (@jkamckenzie.bsky.social) 2025-12-02T16:41:14.859Z

Linus Ullmark is expected to start in goal.

Injuries: Thomas Chabot (IR)

Habs lines

Here’s how Montréal lined up on Saturday night against Colorado:

#Habs lines vs #Avalanche

Caufield – Suzuki – Bolduc
Slafkovsky – Kapanen – Demidov
Texier – Evans – Anderson
F.Xhekaj – Veleno – Gallagher

Matheson – Dobson
A.Xhekaj – Hutson
Engstrom – Carrier

Dobes (starter)
Montembeault

#GoHabsGo #NHL #Hockey @RocketSports.bsky.social

— ChrisHabs360 (@chrishabs360.bsky.social) 2025-11-29T19:58:17.393Z

Sam Montembeault is expected to start against Ottawa.

Injuries: Kaiden Guhle (IR), David Reinbacher, Jayden Struble, Patrick Laine, Kirby Dach, Alex Newhook

Game NotesThe Sens can quickly regain a lot of goodwill by defeating one of their nemesis. I’m looking for a big game from Tim Stützle, who’s coming off of back-to-back -3 performances despite having plenty of scoring chances of his own. Travis Green has put the star centre back with Brady Tkachuk and has swapped who’s on his right side, with Drake Batherson re-joining Dylan Cozens and Fabian Zetterlund moving up. The media was making a big deal at practice over a potential appearance by Kurtis MacDermid. Given that he was acquired as a deterrent, and the Habs are always spicy, I expect him to play his ~5 minutes of ice-time against Arber Xhekaj. Let’s just hope he draws a penalty instead of taking one!After a rough game against Dallas, I’m curious to see how the Kleven – Spence pair rebound. Kleven fought the puck a ton, and it didn’t sound like either defender was able to communicate well under duress. While the Habs rank near the bottom of the league in most important metrics, they’re 4th in goals-per-game and 9th on the powerplay – they can score. Montréal’s goaltending has quickly gone from a strength to a weakness; as has Sam Montembeault’s Olympic chances. Him and Dobes have given up 81 goals on 67.6 expected goals – practically equivalent to Ottawa’s 80 on 67.2. One of the reasons for Montréal’s surprising record last season was their relative health: outside of Patrick Laine, most of their players were healthy. In fact, of their top 12 scorers last season, 11 played 79+ games. Not only are Laine (and Guhle, and Dach) injured again, but depth players like Struble and Newhook are, too. This ramps up the pressure on their (very good) top-line of Caufield, Suzuki, and Slafkovsky, and their young duo of Demidov and Kapanen, who have struggled to drive play this season despite their individual skill sets.

Game 26SenatorsCanadiens
Category#Rank#Rank
Goals/GP3.0414th3.424th
Goals against/GP3.3625th3.5428th
Shots/GP2624th24.830th
Shots against/GP25.64th27.518th
Powerplay %21.811th23.59th
Penalty Kill %69.931st76.526th
Corsi % (5v5 SVA)51.829th47.1424th
xGF% (5v5 SVA)52.948th48.3923rd

SenatorsCanadiens
CategoryPlayer#Player#
GoalsPinto12Caufield14
AssistsSanderson15Suzuki21
PointsStützle23Suzuki28
ShotsPinto62Caufield65
TOI/GPSanderson24:35Matheson24:44