Projected Lineups for Lightning vs Canadiens – 12/9/25 - The Hockey Writers - Projected Lineups

The Tampa Bay Lightning take on the Montreal Canadiens at Bell Centre. Here are the projected/expected lineups sourced from NHL.com staff writers, independent correspondents, and others.

LIGHTNING (16-11-2) at CANADIENS (15-10-3)

7 p.m. ET; RDS, TSN2, The Spot

Lightning projected lineup

Brandon Hagel — Anthony Cirelli — Nikita Kucherov
Jake Guentzel — Brayden Point — Nick Paul
Zemgus Girgensons — Yanni Gourde — Pontus Holmberg
Gage Goncalves — Jack Finley — Oliver Bjorkstrand

Victor Hedman — Max Crozier
J.J. Moser — Darren Raddysh
Charle-Edouard D’Astous — Emil Lilleberg

Jonas Johansson
Brandon Halverson

Scratched: Dominic James, Curtis Douglas

Injured: Ryan McDonagh (undisclosed), Erik Cernak (undisclosed), Andrei Vasilevskiy (undisclosed)

Status report

The Lightning did not hold a morning skate following a 2-0 loss at the Toronto Maple Leafs on Monday. … Johansson could become the first Tampa Bay goalie to start games on back-to-back days this season if he makes a fourth consecutive start; He made 23 saves Monday.

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Canadiens projected lineup

Cole Caufield — Nick Suzuki — Juraj Slafkovsky
Alexandre Texier — Oliver Kapanen — Ivan Demidov
Josh Anderson — Jake Evans — Brendan Gallagher
Jared Davidson — Joe Veleno — Zack Bolduc

Mike Matheson — Noah Dobson
Jayden Struble — Lane Hutson
Arber Xhekaj — Alexandre Carrier

Jakub Dobes
Sam Montembeault

Scratched: None

Injured: Kirby Dach (broken foot), Alex Newhook (broken ankle), Kaiden Guhle (lower body), Patrik Laine (lower body)

Status report:

Dobes will make his third consecutive start; Montembeault will dress as backup after he was ill and unable to play in a 4-3 loss to the St. Louis Blues on Sunday.

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