The Montreal Canadiens will face the Toronto Maple Leafs at the Bell Centre tonight to begin their 2022-23 NHL season.
It is the first time since 2013 that the Canadiens will host the opening game against Toronto, and there will be plenty of new faces in the lineup. Juraj Slafkovsky, Arber Xhekaj, and Kaiden Guhle will make their NHL debuts.
Here is tonight’s projected lineup for the game against the Leafs.
| 22 – Cole Caufield | 14 – Nick Suzuki | 17 – Josh Anderson |
| 91 – Sean Monahan | 77 – Kirby Dach | 68 – Mike Hoffman |
| 20 – Juraj Slafkovsky | 28 – Christian Dvorak | 11 – Brendan Gallagher |
| 32 – Rem Pitlick | 71 – Jake Evans | 63 – Evgenii Dadonov |
| LD | RD | G |
| 21 – Kaiden Guhle | 58 – David Savard | 34 – Jake Allen |
| 54 – Jordan Harris | 26 – Johnathan Kovacevic | 35 – Sam Montembeault |
| 72 – Arber Xhekaj | 6 – Chris Wideman |
Michael Pezzetta and Jonathan Drouin skated this morning as the two extra skaters and will be healthy scratches.
Habs general manager Kent Hughes met the Montreal media this morning and gave an update on the injured players.
Mike Matheson, who was acquired in the off-season in the deal for Jeff Petry, underwent an MRI on Wednesday to determine the severity of his lower-body injury, and his results are expected in the next 48 hours.
Joel Edmundson, who is suffering from a lower back injury, is progressing well and has been skating with the team medical team for the past week. Paul Byron was placed on long-term injury reserve as he continues to deal with a hip injury.
” In the short term and probably even in the mid-term, it doesn’t look like Paul will be able to return, and he is still having trouble,” said Hughes. Carey Price is scheduled to address the media next week in regard to his health situation.
Jake Allen is scheduled to get the start in goal tonight against the Leafs in a season where he is now the de facto number-one goaltender.
