The Toronto Maple Leafs take on the Montreal Canadiens at the Bell Centre tonight. Here are the projected/expected lineups, sourced from NHL.com staff writers, independent correspondents and others.
MAPLE LEAFS (43-23-9) at CANADIENS (29-34-12)
7 p.m. ET; CBC, TVAS, SN
Maple Leafs projected lineup
Tyler Bertuzzi — Auston Matthews — Max Domi
Bobby McMann — John Tavares — Mitchell Marner
Matthew Knies — Pontus Holmberg — William Nylander
Connor Dewar — David Kampf — Ryan Reaves
Morgan Rielly — Ilya Lyubushkin
Simon Benoit — Jake McCabe
Mark Giordano — TJ Brodie
Ilya Samsonov
Joseph Woll
Scratched: Martin Jones, Noah Gregor, Nicholas Robertson, Conor Timmins
Injured: Calle Jarnkrok (hand), Joel Edmundson (undisclosed), Matt Murray (hip), Timothy Liljegren (upper body)
Status report
- Marner returns after missing 12 games because of a high ankle sprain. He practiced on a line with Tavares and McMann on Friday, with Nylander moving to the third line.
- Robertson, a forward, will be left out of the lineup.
- Samsonov is expected to make his third start in four games.
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Canadiens projected lineup
Cole Caufield — Nick Suzuki — Juraj Slafkovsky
Brendan Gallagher — Alex Newhook — Joel Armia
Tanner Pearson — Jake Evans — Josh Anderson
Michael Pezzetta — Colin White — Rafael Harvey-Pinard
Mike Matheson — Jonathan Kovacevic
Jayden Struble — David Savard
Jordan Harris — Justin Barron
Sam Montembeault
Cayden Primeau
Scratched: Jesse Ylonen
Injured: Kaiden Guhle (upper body), Arber Xhekaj (upper body), Joshua Roy (upper body)
Status report
- Guhle and Xhekaj, each a defenseman, will not play; Guhle is day to day with Xhekaj still being evaluated.
- Kovacevic will enter the lineup after being a healthy scratch the past two games and five of the past six.
- Barron will play after being recalled from Laval of the American Hockey League on an emergency basis Saturday.
- Pearson will play after being a healthy scratch the past six games.
- Montembeault will start for the third time in four games.
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