Overview
- Puck drop is 7:30 p.m. ET at Nationwide Arena with coverage on Prime Monday Night Hockey and RDS.
- Montreal enters on a three-game regulation losing streak at 10-6-2, facing a 9-7-2 Columbus team that has gone 2-0-2 in its past four games.
- Jakub Dobes is slated to start for the Canadiens, marking his third appearance of November.
- Coach Martin St-Louis has swapped Ivan Demidov and Zachary Bolduc on the top power-play unit, with Montreal’s 21.4% PP set to test Columbus’s 26th-ranked 72.9% penalty kill.
- The Canadiens navigate extended absences to Kirby Dach, Kaiden Guhle, and Alex Newhook, have recalled defenseman Marc Del Gaizo, and will deploy prospects such as Jared Davidson, while Columbus leans on Kirill Marchenko’s team-leading production and remains without Patrik Laine.