20240319-FLA_0216-robidas-guhle

EDMONTON – Three lineup changes are expected for the Canadiens when the puck drops against the Oilers at Rogers Place on Tuesday.

Trevor Letowski confirmed during his pregame press conference that Tanner Pearson and Jayden Struble will make way for Michael Pezzetta and Johnathan Kovacevic, respectively. Yesterday, the Canadiens’ assistant coach confirmed Samuel Montembeault as the Habs’ starting netminder.

Here’s a list of the 14 players that skated pregame:

Forwards
Defensemen
Goalies
40 Joel Armia
21 Kaiden Guhle
35 Samuel Montembeault
28 Christian Dvorak (no contact)
54 Jordan Harris
30 Cayden Primeau
77 Kirby Dach (no contact) 
26 Johnathan Kovacevic
49 Rafaël Harvey-Pinard 
72 Arber Xhekaj
70 Tanner Pearson
55 Michael Pezzetta
89 Joshua Roy
56 Jesse Ylönen

Christian Dvorak, who’s been out since Dec. 30 with a torn pectoral, was on the ice with the rest of his teammates during the main session. Kirby Dach, on the other hand, waited for most of the traffic to clear before getting his on-ice work in.

“We love seeing him around,” Letowski said about Dach. “We’ve actually had him in on our pre-scout meetings, me and Marty, for a few months now, so we get to see him on gameday mornings but to see him on the ice is exciting. He’s a big part of our future.”

The Canadiens generated 21 scoring chances in Calgary, which Letowski feels was enough to win the game, but Montreal will look to tighten things up at the other end of the ice against an Oilers offense who are producing 3.52 goals per game.

“You can’t turn pucks over against anybody, but especially against this team. We talked about that as something we certainly need to clean up,” Letowski said. “Against a team like this with world-class players, you need a group effort on the defensive side of the puck, especially on the road where it’s hard to get matchups.”

Tuesday’s game in Edmonton is scheduled for 9:00 p.m. ET.