Canadiens Game 6 Preview: Red Wings vs Canadiens

The Canadiens host an Original Six divisional rival tonight as the Detroit Red Wings fly into the Bell Center. Make sure you give us your predictions in the comments section at the bottom of the page!

Always a treat to play against an Original Six team even if we are far removed from the powerhouse Red Wings of the 90’s featuring Steve Yzerman and Sergei Fedorov. Yzerman, who’s now the general manager, is at the helm of a team on the up and up as they feature a boat load of young and exciting talent. There’s still a lot to do in Motown but the future is finally looking bright. One of the players who will not be featured however is Tyler Bertuzzi who cannot cross into Canada, having refused to be vaccinated. He currently leads the Wings with five goals.

For the Canadiens it’s the same story for the sixth time this season as they hope to finally snap their five game losing streak in front of their home crowd. There was some glimpses of hope last game against the Carolina Hurricanes but confidence seemed to have finally collapsed and the team fell to their former teammate in Jesperi Kotkaniemi. Sami Niku is scheduled to make his season debut after suffering a concussion during the pre-season. He saw time on the powerplay at practice so expect him to have a fair amount of ice time.

Alex Nedeljkovic versus Jake Allen is scheduled to be the goaltending matchup.

Here’s the tale of the tape regarding both teams:

Detroit Red Wings

2021-22 Season Record: 2-1-1 (5 pts) 3rd in Atlantic Division

Head Coach: Jeff Blashill

Captain: Dylan Larkin

Injuries: Jakub Vrana (shoulder – 3 to 4 months)

Projected Lineup:

Forwards

**NB: Replacement for Tyler Bertuzzi has yet to be announced. Lineup changes will be announced at 7PM ET so in the meantime, here is the lineup used in Detroit’s last game against the Flames

**Tyler Bertuzzi – Dylan Larkin – Lucas Raymond

Robby Fabbri – Pius Suter – Filip Zadina

Vladislav Namestnikov – Michael Rasmussen – Adam Erne

Givani Smith – Mitchell Stephens – Sam Gagner

Defence

Danny Dekeyser – Filip Hronek

Nick Leddy – Moritz Seider

Marc Staal – Gustav Lindstrom

Goaltenders

Alex Nedeljkovic

Thomas Greiss

Montreal Canadiens

2021-22 Season Record: 0-5-0 (0 pts) 8th in Atlantic Division

Head Coach: Dominique Ducharme

Captain: Shea Weber

Injuries: Shea Weber (undisclosed – indefinite), Carey Price (personal – indefinite), Joel Edmundson (person – indefinite), Paul Byron (hip – December)

Projected Lineup

Forwards

Mike Hoffman – Nick Suzuki – Brendan Gallagher

Jonathan Drouin – Christian Dvorak – Josh Anderson

Tyler Toffoli – Mathieu Perreault – Cole Caufield

Artturi Lehkonen – Jake Evans – Joel Armia

Defence

Ben Chiarot – Jeff Petry

Sami Niku – Brett Kulak

Alexander Romanov – David Savard

Goaltenders

Jake Allen

Samuel Montembeault