Canadiens at Oilers preview

CANADIENS (16-15-4) at OILERS (16-17-2)
7 p.m. ET; SN, TVA Sports, NHL.TV

The Oilers are 5-2-0 in their past seven games. Edmonton won 6-2 at Montreal in their first game against the Canadiens on Dec. 9.
The Canadiens have won two straight games and three of four (3-1-0). They defeated the Calgary Flames 3-2 on Friday in the third of a season-long seven-game road trip.

Players to watch

Canadiens forward Brendan Gallagher scored the winning goal at Calgary to end a six-game goal drought. He leads Montreal with 14 goals.
Oilers center Connor McDavid has six points (two goals, four assists) in his past five games. He leads Edmonton with 41 points (13 goals, 28 assists) in 35 games.

They said it

"It's huge. This western swing has never been the easiest for us. I think it's always nice to come out and play in front of our fans [in Western Canada], but since I've been here anyways, we haven't had the greatest success. It started off well. It would be nice to finish this thing off in Edmonton." -- Canadiens forward Brendan Gallagher
"I think we can expect Montreal to give us a really good game. They obviously have a bad taste in their mouths to what we did to them at home, so we're going to expect their best [Saturday]. We have to be ready to play again." -- Oilers forward Patrick Maroon

Canadiens projected lineup

Max Pacioretty -- Jonathan Drouin -- Paul Byron
Alex Galchenyuk -- Phillip Danault -- Andrew Shaw
Charles Hudon -- Tomas Plekanec -- Brendan Gallagher
Nicolas Deslauriers -- Byron Froese -- Daniel Carr
Jordie Benn -- David Schlemko
Karl Alzner -- Jeff Petry
Joe Morrow -- Jakub Jerabek
Antti Niemi
Carey Price
Scratched:Jacob de la Rose, Brett Lernout, Artturi Lehkonen
Injured:Ales Hemsky (upper body), Al Montoya (concussion), Shea Weber (foot)

Oilers projected lineup

Milan Lucic -- Connor McDavid -- Jesse Puljujarvi
Patrick Maroon -- Ryan Nugent-Hopkins -- Drake Caggiula
Jujhar Khaira -- Leon Draisaitl -- Ryan Strome
Michael Cammalleri -- Mark Letestu -- Zack Kassian
Darnell Nurse -- Kris Russell
Andrej Sekera -- Matt Benning
Brandon Davidson -- Adam Larsson
Cam Talbot
Laurent Brossoit

Scratched:Eric Gryba, Yohann Auvitu, Anton Slepyshev
Injured:Oscar Klefbom (upper body)

Status report

Talbot is expected to make his fourth consecutive start since returning from an upper-body injury.

Stat pack

Lucic has nine points (four goals, five assists) in his past nine games. … Carr has 10 points (three goals, seven assists) in nine games since being recalled from Laval of the American Hockey League. … Talbot is 6-0-0 with a 2.14 goals-against average and .922 save percentage in his past six starts.