![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/USATSI_28592583.jpg\")
<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Credit: Eric Bolte-Imagn Images<\/p>\n
Game 80: Montreal Canadiens vs. Columbus Blue Jackets<\/p>\n
Start time:\u00a07:00 PM EDT \/ 4:00 PM PDT
In Canada: CityTV, Sportsnet East (English), TVA Sports (French)
In the Blue Jackets region: FanDuel Sports Network Ohio
Streaming: ESPN+, Sportsnet+<\/p>\n
The Ottawa Senators closed off the Columbus Blue Jackets\u2019 path to a wild-card spot with a win this afternoon. That leaves just the third seed in the Metropolitan Division as an option for them to make the post-season. To get there, they will need to overtake both the New York Islanders and Philadelphia Flyers in the final three games of their season.<\/p>\n
Even with the situation as dire as it is, Columbus hasn\u2019t been able to respond over the last few weeks, with mounting losses putting them in such a position. They won\u2019t finish the season on a six-game regulation winning streak like they did a year ago, as their only win in the past eight games has come in the shootout versus a Detroit Red Wings team experiencing a similar freefall.<\/p>\n
This is the final regular-season game that the Canadiens will play in front of their home fans, and the question is whether they will return to the Bell Centre for Game 1 of the opening round. That\u2019s the current outlook with them holding a games-played edge on the Tampa Bay Lightning, who got a win earlier today by beating the Boston Bruins. The Canadiens can seal home-ice advantage by winning the final three games, but that won\u2019t be easy versus three teams locked in the Metro fight.<\/p>\n
Montreal Canadiens projected lineup<\/p>\n
Left Wing
\n Centre
\n Right Wing<\/p>\n
#13 Cole Caufield
\n #14 Nick Suzuki
\n #20 Juraj Slafkovsk\u00fd<\/p>\n
#85 Alexandre Texier
\n #91 Oliver Kapanen
\n #93 Ivan Demidov<\/p>\n
#15 Alex Newhook
\n #24 Phillip Danault
\n #77 Kirby Dach<\/p>\n
#90 Joe Veleno
\n #71 Jake Evans
\n #17 Josh Anderson<\/p>\n
Left Defence
\n Right Defence<\/p>\n
#8 Mike Matheson
\n #53 Noah Dobson<\/p>\n
#47 Jayden Struble
\n #48 Lane Hutson<\/p>\n
#72 Arber Xhekaj
\n #42 Adam Engstr\u00f6m<\/p>\n
Starter
\n Backup<\/p>\n
#75 Jakub Dobe\u0161
\n #32 Jacob Fowler<\/p>\n
Injured: Alexandre Carrier, Kaiden Guhle
Scratched: Brendan Gallagher, Patrik Laine, Samuel Montembeault<\/p>\n
Columbus Blue Jackets projected lineup<\/p>\n
Left Wing
\n Centre
\n Right Wing<\/p>\n
Kirill Marchenko
\n Adam Fantilli
\n Isac Lundestrom<\/p>\n
Cole Sillinger
\n Charlie Coyle
\n Danton Heinen<\/p>\n
Mason Marchment
\n Boone Jenner
\n Conor Garland<\/p>\n
Miles Wood
\n Sean Monahan
\n Kent Johnson<\/p>\n
Left Defence
\n Right Defence<\/p>\n
Zach Werenski
\n Dante Fabbro<\/p>\n
Ivan Provorov
\n Denton Mateychuk<\/p>\n
Jake Christiansen
\n Erik Gudbranson<\/p>\n
Starter
\n Backup<\/p>\n
Jet Greaves
\n Elvis Merzlikins<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Credit: Eric Bolte-Imagn Images Game 80: Montreal Canadiens vs. Columbus Blue Jackets Start time:\u00a07:00 PM EDT \/ 4:00…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":550630,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5108],"tags":[3644,5180,897,230,5179,5,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-550629","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-columbus-blue-jackets","8":"tag-blue-jackets","9":"tag-bluejackets","10":"tag-columbus","11":"tag-columbus-blue-jackets","12":"tag-columbusbluejackets","13":"tag-hockey","14":"tag-nhl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116388414009316579","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550629","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=550629"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550629\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/550630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=550629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=550629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=550629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}