Canadiens Pre Game
Canadiens Preview And Lines: Heineman Returns, Xhekaj Excited
The Montreal Canadiens (25-26-5) are set to place the Ottawa Senators (29-23-4), with the puck drop scheduled for 7 pm ET.
Based on the lines at practice, Emil Heineman is expected to play on the fourth line alongside Jake Evans and Joel Armia. Head coach Martin St-Louis immediately lost any semblance of structure and chemistry as soon as Heineman was injured, and will look to the fourth line to once again punch well above their weight now that the 23-year-old Swede is ready to play.
Without Heineman by his side, Evans’ numbers immediately collapsed. Not only did he stop scoring, his underlying numbers went from dominant to well below average.
ON TOPIC: The Montreal Canadiens Miss Emil Heineman More Than Expected
The Canadiens will turn to Samuel Montembeault to guard the net on Saturday. He did not end up playing for Team Canada at the 4 Nations Faceoff, but there’s no denying Montembeault’s hockey story sparks inspiration and is worthy of celebration.
Arber Xhekaj seems particularly excited to play some meaningful hockey. The rough-and-tumble defenceman discussed the upcoming game with TVA Sports’ Nicolas Cloutier, making it quite clear that he’s not going to give any quarter to super pest Brady Tkachuk.
Cloutier asked Xhekaj whether the best tactic to deal with Tkachuk’s trolling is simply to ignore him, but the defenceman had other ideas.
“I’ll butt heads with him,” said Xhekaj. “I’ll go right at him, I don’t care.”
It seems that fighting fire with fire is the tactic of choice on Saturday night, as the Canadian defenceman will go out of his way to confront the player who made so much noise for Team USA at the 4 Nations Faceoff, a tournament the USA lost to Canada.
Montreal Canadiens Projected Lineup
| Cole Caufield | Nick Suzuki | Juraj Slafkovsky |
| Joshua Roy | Alex Newhook | Patrik Laine |
| Brendan Gallagher | Christian Dvorak | Josh Anderson |
| Emil Heineman | Jake Evans | Joel Armia |
| Mike Matheson | Alexandre Carrier |
| Jayden Struble | Lane Hutson |
| Arber Xhekaj | David Savard |
| Samuel Montembeault |
| Jakub Dobes |
Ottawa Senators Projected Lineup
Tkachuk – Stutzle – Giroux
Perron – Greig – Batherson
Highmore – Ostapchuk – Amadio
Gregor – Gaudette – Reinhardt
Sanderson – Zub
Chabot – Jensen
Kleven – Matinpalo
Ullmark
How to Watch the Montreal Canadiens vs. the Ottawa Senators, Saturday, February 22, 2025.
Game 57 of the regular season will be aired on TVA Sports, Sporstnet East, and City TV. Once the game is over, an instant recap complete with highlights will be available on Montreal Hockey Now.
Where do you get Mailloux in this lineup he wasn’t even at practice this week. Or is this a last minute thing?
I got it from forgetting to press ‘save’ on the tables before publishing the article. Simply a brain fart on my part. But thanks for pointing it out, it’s been fixed!
Butt heads, sure. Get suckered into running around after him or taking a bad penalty? Hope not. I want disciplined destruction from The Sheriff.
Same, though I think we need to give him the benefit of the doubt, he’s done well in that department this season.
Though Tkachuk is on a whole new level, it’s hard to ignore his shenanigans. So, you’re right, it’ll be a test.
aaaaaand Tkachuk is going to miss tonight’s game. A loss for all (from an entertainment POV anyhow).
Good news for us though. Encouraging to see that Slafkovsky has been inspired by Brady’s style of play tonight. Hopefully he can continue to build upon it. It’s also interesting that our 2 most “Tkachuk-like” players, Gallagher and Anderson, both potted goals so far as well. Knock on wood, so far, so good, after 2 periods. 🤞
And now Slaf drops the mitts (or at least one of them anyway 😂) at 13:13 of the 3rd. Hopefully that’s a lucky omen and not bad luck like an hand injury. All he needs now is an assist for the Gordie Howe (or Brady Tkachuk?) hat-trick.