Entering tonight's game, the Tampa Bay Lightning and Montreal Canadiens find themselves level with 45 points. While the Lightning currently hold the tie-breaker, every point matters as we approach the halfway point of the season.
The Lightning enter the game on a three-game winning streak, however they are coming off of a physical affair against the Florida Panthers. As for the Canadiens, they won their most recent outing against the Boston Bruins, however, that was five days ago due to the Christmas break.
In the last five games, the Canadiens have unsurprisingly been led by their young star defenseman, Lane Hutson. He has seven points, all of which are assists, during that span. In those five games, Zachary Bolduc leads the Habs in goals with three. As for the Lightning, Jake Guentzel leads the team in both points (6) and goals (3) in the last five games.
These two teams met for the first time in the 2025-26 campaign earlier this month at the Bell Centre in Montreal, which saw the Lightning walk away with a dominant 6-1 win.
Montreal Expected Lines (Per Eric Engels)
Caufield - Suzuki - Bolduc
Slafkovsky - Kapanen - Demidov
Texier - Danault - Anderson
Blais - Veleno - Gallagher
Matheson - Dobson
Hutson - Carrier
Xhekaj - Struble
Fowler
Tampa Bay Expected Lines (Based on Last Night)
Goncalves - Point - Kucherov
Guentzel - Cirelli - Bjorkstrand
Holmberg - Gourde - Girgensons
Douglas - Paul - Sabourin
Moser - Raddysh
D'Astous - Crozier
Carlile - Santini
Vasilevskiy/Johansson
