Canadiens Preview And Lines: Armia Plays, Montembeault Starts

The Montreal Canadiens (31-27-7) are set to face the Florida Panthers (41-22-3), with the puck drop scheduled for 7 pm ET.

It’s the second of four games against the Panthers this season, and if the Habs hope to make the playoffs, they’ll have to win the majority of those matchups. The good news is that the first time these two teams met the Canadiens emerged with a 4-0 win, with rookie netminder Jakub Dobes saving all 34 of the shots sent his way to record a shutout in his NHL debut.

This time around it will be Samuel Montemeault who faces the Panthers, while forward Joel Armia will return to the lineup, having recovered from his arm injury. Patrik Laine is expected to play, which means Michael Pezzetta will watch Saturday’s game from the press box.

As it stands, the Canadiens’ top line keeps producing, and that’s a very encouraging sign, especially down the final stretch of the season, but their success has also put a spotlight on the lack of secondary and tertiary production from the rest of the lineup.

In a bid to kickstart the second line, Patrik Laine has been reunited with Alex Newhook, featuring Joshua Roy as the third member of the trio. Roy is to register his name on the scoresheet since being called up from the team’s AHL affiliate, the Laval Rocket.

Laine is one of the few players who has provided some semblance of consistency from an offensive standpoint, though his 5v5 play still leaves much to be desired. At the very least, he’s scoring more goals in fewer games than most players in team history, and criticizing his goal scoring prowess on the powerplay would be looking a gift horse in the mouth.

ON TOPIC: Habs Highlights: Slafkovsky Continues Great Play, Laine Produces

The Panthers will be without three heavy hitters, as Matthew Tkachuk has been sidelined following his injury that occurred at 4 Nations Faceoff, Aaron Ekblad was suspended for 20 games for using performance enhancing drugs, and newcomer Brad Marchand is on the mend.

For the view from the other side of the rink, make sure to check out our sister site, Florida Hockey Now.

Montreal Canadiens Projected Lineup

Florida Panthers Projected Lineup

Verhaeghe – Barkov – Reinhart

Samoskevich – Bennett – Rodrigues

Luostarinen – Lundell -Boqvist

Greer – Sturm – Gadjovich

Forsling – Jones

Mikkola – Kulikov

Balinskis – Schmidt

Bobrovsky

How to Watch the Montreal Canadiens vs. the Florida Panthers, Saturday, March 15, 2025.

Game 66 of the regular season will be aired on RDS, and TSN2. Once the game is over, an instant recap complete with highlights will be available on Montreal Hockey Now.