{"id":528077,"date":"2026-03-28T20:18:19","date_gmt":"2026-03-28T20:18:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/528077\/"},"modified":"2026-03-28T20:18:19","modified_gmt":"2026-03-28T20:18:19","slug":"fowler-expected-to-start-versus-predators","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/528077\/","title":{"rendered":"Fowler Expected To Start Versus Predators"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Montreal Canadiens<\/a> (40-21-10) will face the Nashville Predators (34-29-9) on Saturday night, with the puck drop scheduled for 7 pm ET.<\/p>\n

While the Habs are in good shape when it comes to their playoff odds<\/a>, and are likely to qualify for a second consecutive season, it\u2019s the opposite situation in Nashville, where the Predators are once again set to miss the springtime.<\/p>\n

When Lane Hutson registered his 70th point of the season in Montreal\u2019s crucial win over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Thursday, he became the third Canadiens player to reach the 70-point mark this season, alongside Nick Suzuki (84) and Cole Caufield (76). The Preds, on the other hand, are yet to see any of their players hit 70 points, with veteran Ryan O\u2019Reilly leading the underwhelming charge (66).<\/p>\n

The Canadiens own a better powerplay, score more goals, allow their opponents to score fewer, and win more faceoffs than the Predators, which may give you the impression that Saturday night\u2019s game will be an easy one, but that\u2019s a mistake in a forced-parity league such as the NHL.<\/p>\n

This is a classic trap game for the Habs, especially when we consider they have a very hard time starting games on the right foot. Montreal loves to play behind the eight-ball, offering their best performances when they\u2019re facing adversity. This unorthodox style of play has led to several exciting wins this year, but it\u2019s clearly a risky strategy. <\/p>\n

Lineup Changes<\/p>\n

Head coach Martin St-Louis intends to hold his cards close to his chest through the final stretch of the regular season, which makes lineup updates a little more challenging. <\/p>\n

However, Jacob Fowler was the first goaltender to leave the ice at practice, usually a strong indication that he\u2019s set to start the upcoming game. <\/p>\n

Montreal Canadiens Projected Lineup<\/p>\n

Cole Caufield<\/a> \u2013 Nick Suzuki<\/a> \u2013 Juraj Slafkovsky<\/a><\/p>\n

Alex Newhook \u2013 Oliver Kapanen \u2013 Ivan Demidov<\/a><\/p>\n

Zach Bolduc \u2013 Jake Evans \u2013 Josh Anderson<\/p>\n

Joe Veleno \u2013 Phillip Danault \u2013 Brendan Gallagher<\/p>\n

Mike Matheson \u2013 Noah Dobson<\/p>\n

Kaiden Guhle \u2013 Alex Carrier<\/p>\n

Jayden Struble- Lane Hutson<\/p>\n

Jakub Dobes<\/p>\n

Nashville Predators Projected Lineup<\/p>\n

Steven Stamkos \u2013 Ryan O\u2019Reilly \u2013 Luke Evangelista<\/p>\n

Filip Forsberg \u2013 Matthew Wood \u2013 Jonathan Marchessault<\/p>\n

Zachary L\u2019Heureux \u2013 Erik Haula \u2013 Tyson Jost<\/p>\n

Reid Schaefer \u2013 Fedor Svechkov \u2013 Joakim Kemell<\/p>\n

Brady Skjei \u2013 Roman Josi<\/p>\n

Nicolas Hague \u2013 Nick Perbix<\/p>\n

Adam Wilsby \u2013 Ryan Ufko<\/p>\n

Juuse Saros<\/p>\n

How To Watch The Habs Vs. The Preds<\/p>\n

The Montreal Canadiens versus the Nashville Predators, Thursday, March 26, 2026, will be aired<\/a> on RDS and TSN2. An instant recap complete with highlights will be available on Sportsnaut<\/a> as soon as the final whistle is blown.<\/p>\n

\t\t\"avatar\"<\/p>\n

\t\tMarc has been covering the Habs for over a decade. He previously worked for Journal Metro, The Athletic, The … More about Marc Dumont<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Montreal Canadiens (40-21-10) will face the Nashville Predators (34-29-9) on Saturday night, with the puck drop scheduled…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":528078,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5119],"tags":[5,21,2409,231,5281,4,2410],"class_list":{"0":"post-528077","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nashville-predators","8":"tag-hockey","9":"tag-montreal-canadiens","10":"tag-nashville","11":"tag-nashville-predators","12":"tag-nashvillepredators","13":"tag-nhl","14":"tag-predators"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116308654515904881","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528077","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=528077"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528077\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/528078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=528077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=528077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=528077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}