Montreal Canadiens Strong Lineup Taking On Sens B-Team
The Montreal Canadiens are heading into their final preseason game of the year tonight. They will face the Ottawa Senators in the team’s sixth exhibition game.
The final preseason game is usually one where both teams have something very close to their opening night lineup on the ice. Most teams have made almost all of their cuts by this time and they are using the final exhibition game to test out line combinations they think will work in the regular season and just getting veterans on the ice and ready for a real game.
That is what the Canadiens will be doing tonight. They are sitting a couple of veterans like Brendan Gallagher and David Savard, but that just gives them an opportunity to get one last look at a player like Gustav Lindstrom on defense or Emil Heineman up front.
The Habs lines tonight will look like this:
Caufield – Suzuki – Harvey-Pinard
Newhook – Dach – Slafkovsky
Heineman – Monahan – Armia
Pezzetta – Evans – Ylonen
Matheson – Lindstrom
Norlinder – Barron
Xhekaj – Harris
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The Senators, on the other hand, are apparently using this game as a preseason game for their AHL affiliate. Most of the players they have in the lineup tonight will not play when the regular season begins. Many of them are unrecognizable to a casual hockey fan.
The Senators lines in their preseason finale tonight are:
Smejkal – Greig – Sokolov
Kubalik – Jarventie – Bailey
Kelly – Kastelic – Fizer
Imama – Ostapchuk – MacEwen
Brannstrom – Hamonic
Larsson – Guenette
Heatherington – Mantinpalo
It is unfortunate the Canadiens are not getting a real tuneup game as their final exhibition match as per usual NHL operating procedure. The Senators are not dressing a single player that is a top six forward or any of their top four defensemen.
The Canadiens, meanwhile, are trying to decide who the last few cuts will be and are not going to get a proper barometer reading from this contest. At least we are only four days away from the regular season finally opening for the Canadiens and we can be done with the preseason.
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