{"id":672184,"date":"2026-09-26T19:27:45","date_gmt":"2026-09-26T19:27:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/672184\/"},"modified":"2026-09-26T19:27:45","modified_gmt":"2026-09-26T19:27:45","slug":"canadiens-split-game-previews-projected-lines-how-to-watch-vs-senators","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/672184\/","title":{"rendered":"Canadiens Split-Game Previews: Projected Lines, How To Watch Vs Senators"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Montreal Canadiens<\/a> are set to face the Ottawa Senators in split games that will be played simultaneously on Saturday, with one match up taking place at the Bell Centre, and the other at the Canadian Tire Centre. Both games are scheduled to begin at 7 pm ET.<\/p>\n

It will be the final preseason opportunity for several NHL hopefuls, including defenceman David Reinbacher, and forward Florian Xhekaj, the two players who have the best odds of making the team out of camp.<\/p>\n

Reinbacher is aiming to earn a job on the blue line, a situation that has been helped along by Kaiden Guhle\u2019s absence. Guhle is expected to miss another four weeks of action as he recovers from his latest surgery. Reinbacher is set to play in Ottawa, paired with yet another defenceman with NHL aspirations, the smooth-skating Adam Engstrom. <\/p>\n

The pairing will play second fiddle to Arber Xhekaj and Jayden Struble, two hard-hitting defencemen who will be tasked with regulating some of the shenanigans that inevitably take place whenever the Habs and Senators face off.<\/p>\n

As for F. Xhekaj, his truculent approach is exactly what the Canadiens are looking for in their bottom-six, and though he\u2019s facing a crowded forward lineup, his intensity and affinity for providing more than just a physical presence should give him the inside track on any other young player in the mix. He will be playing in Montreal, on a fourth line alongside fellow prospects Owen Beck and Tyler Thorpe, the epitome of an energy line.<\/p>\n

It should be noted that Ivan Demidov and Lane Hutson will not take part in either game, and will take the opportunity to rest prior to the start of the regular season on Tuesday, versus the Toronto Maple Leafs.<\/p>\n

Montreal Canadiens Projected Lineup \u2013 Group A (@Montreal)<\/p>\n

Cole Caufield \u2013 Nick Suzuki \u2013 Chris Kreider<\/p>\n

Alex Newhook \u2013 Phillip Danault \u2013 Juraj Slafkovsky<\/p>\n

Alexandre Texier \u2013 Jake Evans \u2013 Josh Anderson<\/p>\n

Florian Xhekaj \u2013 Owen Beck \u2013 Tyler Thorpe<\/p>\n

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

Alexandre Carrier \u2013 Luke Mittelstadt <\/p>\n

Max Szuber \u2013 Ethan Samson<\/p>\n

Jacob Fowler <\/p>\n

Samuel Montembeault<\/p>\n

Montreal Canadiens Projected Lineup \u2013 Group B (@ Ottawa)<\/p>\n

Zachary Bolduc \u2013 Oliver Kapanen \u2013 Kirby Dach<\/p>\n

Jared Davidson \u2013 Laurent Dauphin \u2013 Alex Belzile<\/p>\n

Brett Berard \u2013 Hunter McKown \u2013 Sasha Pastujov<\/p>\n

Samuel Poulin \u2013 Filip Mesar \u2013 Dillan Bentley<\/p>\n

Jayden Struble \u2013 Arber Xhekaj<\/p>\n

Adam Engstrom \u2013 David Reinbacher<\/p>\n

Owen Protz \u2013 Reilly Walsh<\/p>\n

Jakub Dobes<\/p>\n

Kaapo Kahkonen<\/p>\n

How To Watch The Habs Vs. The Senators \u2013 Preseason Split Games<\/p>\n

The Montreal Canadiens versus the Ottawa Senators, Saturday, September 26, will feature two concurrent games.<\/p>\n

Group A will play at the Bell Centre, in Montreal. It will be aired<\/a> on TSN5 and RDS.<\/p>\n

Group B will play at the Canadian Tire Centre, in Ottawa. Unfortunately, it does not appear that there will be any official broadcast of this game aired<\/a> live on TV. If they do add a broadcast, we will update the preview, but for the time being, it will only be available on local radio (TSN 1200). <\/p>\n

You may be wondering why we do not have access to a game in 2026, but such is life as an NHL fan. Running simultaneous games doesn\u2019t make much sense to begin with, and this is just the cherry on the top of the terrible-scheduling sundae by the league.<\/p>\n

The Senators have mentioned on social media that they will stream the game on their website<\/a>, but there\u2019s no link available at this time. <\/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 are set to face the Ottawa Senators in split games that will be played simultaneously…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":672185,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5104],"tags":[5,21,4,72,25,5157,73],"class_list":["post-672184","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ottawa-senators","tag-hockey","tag-montreal-canadiens","tag-nhl","tag-ottawa","tag-ottawa-senators","tag-ottawasenators","tag-senators"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/117338993346409538","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672184","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=672184"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672184\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/672185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=672184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=672184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=672184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}