Canadiens at Avalanche

CANADIENS (8-25-6) at AVALANCHE (27-8-3)

Canadiens projected lineup
Tyler Toffoli -- Nick Suzuki -- Artturi Lehkonen
Jake Evans -- Rem Pitlick -- Josh Anderson
Laurent Dauphin -- Christian Dvorak -- Mike Hoffman
Michael Pezzetta -- Ryan Poehling -- Cedric Paquette
Ben Chiarot -- David Savard
Kale Clague -- Jeff Petry
Alexander Romanov -- Chris Wideman
Cayden Primeau
Michael McNiven
Scratched: Sami Niku
Injured: Jake Allen (lower body), Brendan Gallagher (lower body), Mathieu Perreault (undisclosed), Joel Edmundson (undisclosed), Jonathan Drouin (upper body), Sam Montembeault (upper body)
COVID-19 protocol: Joel Armia, Cole Caufield
Avalanche projected lineup
Gabriel Landeskog -- Nathan MacKinnon -- Mikko Rantanen
Andre Burakovsky -- Nazem Kadri -- Logan O'Connor
Nicolas Aube-Kubel -- Alex Newhook -- J.T. Compher
Tyson Jost -- Mikhail Maltsev --
Kiefer Sherwood
Devon Toews -- Cale Makar
Jack Johnson -- Samuel Girard
Kurtis MacDermid -- Erik Johnson
Pavel Francouz
Darcy Kuemper
Scratched: Bowen Byram
Injured: Darren Helm (lower body), Jacob MacDonald (upper body), Stefan Matteau (lower body), Ryan Murray (upper body)
COVID-19 protocol: Valeri Nichushkin
Status report
Neither team held a morning skate Saturday. ... Drouin, a forward, was placed on injured reserve Saturday. ... Anderson and Petry will each be a game-time decision with an undisclosed injury. ... McNiven was recalled from Laval of the American Hockey League and will back up Primeau, who was pulled after allowing four goals on 16 shots through two periods in a 5-2 loss at the Arizona Coyotes on Monday.