Canadiens Pre Game

Canadiens Game 50: Beck’s NHL Debut, Lines & Pairings Shuffled

Published

1 year ago

January 28, 2023

The Montreal Canadiens (20-25-4) face the Ottawa Senators (22-23-3) in what is expected to be a heated affair at the Canadian Tire Centre. The puck drop is scheduled for 7 PM ET.

The Canadiens will have a new face in the lineup tonight as 18-year-old Owen Beck will be making his NHL debut tonight.

The 33rd overall selection in the 2022 NHL Draft was called up yesterday on an emergency basis from the Peterborough Petes of the OHL due to the long list of injuries currently bogging the Canadiens down.

The Canadiens were getting rather thin up the middle, with Nick Suzuki, Kirby Dach and Christian Dvorak all seemingly banged up and in need of a breather, with Suzuki and Dach routinely logging over 20 minutes of ice time of late.

An emergency recall from junior is exceedingly rare and takes some pretty special conditions, which we lay out in the article below.

MUST READ: Reason Why Canadiens Are Allowed To Recall Owen Beck

After leaving the game on Thursday with an injury, defenceman Joel Edmundson is listed as day-to-day at the moment and isn’t expected to play tonight.

Johnathan Kovacevic is expected to get back into some game action against the Senators, replacing veteran Chris Wideman in the lineup.

After a tremendous run during the month of January, Samuel Montembeault was afforded a rest on Thursday, with the returning Jake Allen coming back from injury to start the game.

However, Montembeault’s play of late has certainly earned him more games moving forward than a traditional backup, and he will look to continue his momentum tonight against the Senators in his quest to prove that he can be a No.1 goaltender down the road.

Building Momentum In Ottawa

The Ottawa Senators have had a disappointing season so far. After announcing the end of their rebuild, due to the acquisitions of major pieces like Claude Giroux and Alex DeBrincat, things haven’t seemed to take off for Ottawa.

A lot of that could be chalked up to injury, as the loss of No.1 centre Josh Norris was a massive blow to the club, and losses of goaltender Cam Talbot and defenceman Artem Zub for extended periods of time have exposed their lack of depth.

Nonetheless, the Senators have to be coming into this game with a lot of confidence, having handled with Toronto Maple Leafs with great ease on Friday night in a 6-2 victory.

Brady Tkachuk is coming in hot for the Senators, as he’s potted four goals and added three assists for seven points in his last five games; dragging his team forward in major moments. It’s more of the same for Tkachuk though, as he’s put up 19 goals and 30 assists for 49 points in 48 games this year; showing great consistency for a young captain on an underachieving team.

Tim Stutzle has also been up to the task in the absence of Norris, keeping pace with Tkachuk offensively and improving his play on the defensive side of the puck at the same time. His 20 goals in 44 games leads the Senators at the moment, which is surprising, given that DeBrincat was brought in for that very purpose and is seemingly on pace for only a 30-goal season.

Nonetheless, Stutzle has emerged as a bonafide top-line forward, be it a centre or a winger down the line, and that has to be a bright spot for the Senators moving forward.

With the injury to Cam Talbot, Anton Forsberg, who played on Friday night against Toronto, will be pulling double duty tonight against the Canadiens, as he gets set for back-to-back games. The 30-year-old netminder has been better than his 0.903 save percentage and 3.24 goals-against average would indicate; as Senators goalies haven’t been helped by their loose defensive structure this season.

Montreal Canadiens Injuries

Kaiden Guhle (Injured Reserve)
Brendan Gallagher (Injured Reserve)
Joel Armia (Injured Reserve)
Jake Evans (Injured Reserve)
Juraj Slafkovsky (Injured Reserve)
Jonathan Drouin (Injured Reserve)
Cole Caufield (Injured Reserve)
Sean Monahan (LTIR)
Carey Price (LTIR)
Paul Byron (LTIR)

Ottawa Senators Injuries

Tyler Motte (Injured Reserve)
Rourke Chartier (Injured Reserve)
Artem Zub (Injured Reserve)
Josh Norris(Injured Reserve)
Cam Talbot (Injured Reserve)

Montreal Canadiens Previous Lineup

LW	C	RW
Cole Caufield	Nick Suzuki	Juraj Slafkovsky
Brendan Gallagher	Alex Newhook	Joel Armia
Jesse Ylonen	Jake Evans	Josh Anderson
Michael Pezzetta	Christian Dvorak	Rafael Harvey-Pinard