Montreal Canadiens vs. Toronto Maple Leafs Game 7 Preview

The Montreal Canadiens and Toronto Maple Leafs will be playing Game 7 at the Scotiabank Arena tonight in front of 550 fully vaccinated frontline healthcare workers. Just like it was the case at the Bell Centre last Saturday, this will be the first time the Leafs host fans.

The lineup tonight should be the same as last game for the Montreal Canadiens.

Here is what it should look like:

Toffoli-Suzuki-Caufield
Evans-Danault-Gallagher
Byron-Kotkaniemi-Anderson
Armia-Staal-Perry

Chiarot-Weber
Edmundson-Petry
Kulak-Gustafsson

Last game, Shea Weber played 37 minutes, Ben Chiarot and Jeff Petry played 35, and Joel Edmundson 28, while the defenceman on the third pair played around six minutes each. I would have expected Alexander Romanov to replace one of these defencemen, since they only played six minutes, and the worst-case scenario would be to just let Romanov play the same minutes, but it doesn’t look like he will be in the lineup tonight.

Though, Head Coach Dominique Ducharme said yesterday: “We need everybody to have success. We often see that in the playoffs. Teams that go far benefit from production up and down the lineup.”

So if he’s not letting the third pair play, why not give Romanov a chance?

I guess we’ll see more of that tonight.

For the Toronto Maple Leafs, Jake Muzzin, who had left the game with a lower-body injury, will not play tonight, and Rasmus Sandin is expected to replace him in the lineup:

Hyman-Matthews-Marner
Galchenyuk-Foligno-Nylander
Mikheyev-Kerfoot-Simmonds
Thornton-Engvall-Spezza

Rielly-Brodie
Sandin-Holl
Dermott-Bogosian

Tonight will probably be another amazing goaltender show, as every game has been this series, with, of course, Carey Price and Jack Campbell in net for their respective teams.

The winner tonight will be heading to the second round to face the Winnipeg Jets, and Game 1 will probably be scheduled for Wednesday night.

The game starts at 7 p.m. EST and will be available in English on CBC, Sportsnet, and CNBC, and in French on TVA Sports.