Panthers at Canadiens preview

PANTHERS (33-31-12) at CANADIENS (40-28-8)
7:30 p.m. ET; ESPN+, TSN2, RDS, FS-F, NHL.TV

Montreal holds the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs, two points ahead of the Columbus Blue Jackets, who have one game in hand and play the New York Islanders on Tuesday.
The Canadiens, who are 3-0-1 in their past four games, are three points behind the Carolina Hurricanes for the first wild card. Carolina, which has one game in hand, plays the Washington Capitals on Tuesday.
Florida is 1-4-0 in the past five games, including a 7-5 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Monday. The Panthers would be eliminated from playoff contention with a loss to the Canadiens or a Blue Jackets win.

Players to watch

Panthers forward Aleksander Barkov has 20 points (six goals, 14 assists) in his past 10 games, and is six points behind Pavel Bure's Florida single-season record of 94 set in 1999-2000.
Canadiens goaltender Carey Price will make his ninth straight start. He is 4-3-1, with a 2.50 goals-against average, .917 save percentage and one shutout in his past eight.

They said it

"We can't have any quit in here. There are still six games left in the season. We're going to leave it all out there and try and win every game." -- Panthers forward Jayce Hawryluk
"We've just been going out and enjoying playing these meaningful games, and it's a lot of fun when you're winning and the two kind of go hand in hand." -- Canadiens forward Brendan Gallagher

Panthers projected lineup

Jonathan Huberdeau -- Aleksander Barkov -- Evgenii Dadonov
Mike Hoffman -- Vincent Trocheck -- Jayce Hawryluk
Frank Vatrano -- Riley Sheahan -- Denis Malgin
Jamie McGinn -- Henrik Borgstrom -- Troy Brouwer
Mike Matheson -- Aaron Ekblad
Keith Yandle -- MacKenzie Weegar
Ian McCoshen -- Josh Brown
James Reimer
Sam Montembeault
Scratched:Dryden Hunt, Brady Keeper, Colton Sceviour, Mark Pysyk, Roberto Luongo
Injured: Derek MacKenzie (shoulder)

Canadiens projected lineup

Tomas Tatar -- Phillip Danault -- Brendan Gallagher
Artturi Lehkonen -- Max Domi -- Andrew Shaw
Jonathan Drouin -- Jesperi Kotkaniemi -- Joel Armia
Paul Byron -- Nate Thompson -- Jordan Weal
Victor Mete -- Shea Weber
Brett Kulak -- Jeff Petry
Jordie Benn -- Christian Folin
Carey Price
Antti Niemi
Scratched:Nicolas Deslauriers, Charles Hudon, Matthew Peca, Dale Weise, Mike Reilly, Charlie Lindgren
Injured:None

Status report

Luongo was scheduled to start against the Canadiens, but that was before he replaced Montembeault 4:21 into the first period against the Maple Leafs. ... Canadiens coach Claude Julien will use the same lineup for the eighth straight game. He has used the same lines and defense pairs for each of the past five.

Stat pack

Huberdeau has 19 points (seven goals, 12 assists) in the past 10 games. … Gallagher has four points (two goals, two assists) in the past two games.