Montreal Canadiens Projected Opening Night Lineup

The Montreal Canadiens are halfway through training camp and things are beginning to take shape. Here are the projected forward lines and defense pairings for opening night.

The Montreal Canadiens began training camp over a week ago and with five of their seven preseason games in the books, it is time to take a peek at what the lineup will look like on opening night.

Injuries always play a role in putting a lineup together and the Habs are already dealing with a few players that are out of the lineup. Ryan Poehling had a great start to camp but was then injured on a questionable hit against the Florida Panthers in an exhibition game. He is out indefinitely with a concussion and is likely to miss the start of the season. He was not guaranteed a spot heading into camp but he played well enough early on to deserve a longer look.

Paul Byron is also currently out of the lineup but it was announced yesterday that he would be playing if the regular season began today. The veteran winger is just being held out for precautionary measures but will be ready for opening night.

Noah Juulsen played well last season and looked to have a really good chance of earning a role to start this year. However, he has been injured with headaches and has not been to camp since a week. It is extremely unlikely that he will be back in time for the start of the campaign and even if he is, he will be with the Laval Rocket.

The Canadiens have been tinkering with things throughout camp, but their vision for opening night is starting to take shape. There have been some surprises with line combinations and defense pairings and a few rookies who are pushing for a roster spot unexpectedly.

Let’s take a look at their projected opening night lineup, based on what we have seen so far during training camp.