Marc Dumont
The Montreal Canadiens (25-25-5) are set to host the Tampa Bay Lightning (30-20-4), with the puck drop scheduled for 1 pm ET.
This will be the team’s final game before taking a break for the upcoming 4 Nations Faceoff tournament, as well as the third and final time the Canadiens and Lightning will meet this season. Montreal beat Tampa Bay twice in less than a month, which signalled a strong push in the standings by a team that looked poised to take the next step.
Unfortunately, that momentum has completely dissipated, as evidenced by the Canadiens’ frustrating 4-0 loss versus the New Jersey Devils on Saturday afternoon.
All things considered, it was not a terrible outing from a statistical standpoint, but holding an edge in shots and scoring chances at 5v5 provides very little solace when a former teammate puts together a shutout effort, as we saw from Jake Allen.
It may seem simplistic, but the Canadiens simply do not have much confidence once they cross the neutral zone, leading to a lack of sustained shifts by the team’s top two lines. The offensive well has dried out, propelling forward Alex Newhook into the spotlight as the most productive Canadiens player in the last five games. He has four points in that span. Joel Armia takes home the ‘hottest scorer’ award for the past week, though it’s certainly not a point of pride for anyone concerned, as Armia has only managed two goals in five games.
Head coach Martin St-Louis will turn to rookie goaltender Jakub Dobes on Sunday, however, no other lineup changes are expected.
ON TOPIC: Montreal Canadiens Analysis: Evaluating Dobes And Montembeault
Montreal Canadiens Projected Lineup
[table id=15 /]
[table id=16 /]
[table id=17 /]
Tampa Bay Lightning Projected Lineup
Guentzel – Cirelli – Kucherov
Hagel – Paul – Gonclaves
Girgensons – Paul – Eyssimont
Chaffee – Glendening – Duke
Hedman – Raddysh
McDonagh – Cernak
Lilleberg – Perbix
Vasilevskiy
How to Watch the Montreal Canadiens vs. the Tampa Bay Lightning, Sunday, February 9, 2025.
Game 56 of the regular season will be aired on RDS and TSN2. Once the game is over, an instant recap complete with highlights will be available on Montreal Hockey Now.
