Canadiens projected lineup
Cole Caufield -- Nick Suzuki -- Emil Heineman
Juraj Slafkovsky -- Alex Newhook -- Kirby Dach
Josh Anderson -- Jake Evans -- Brendan Gallagher
Joel Armia -- Christian Dvorak -- Oliver Kapanen
Mike Matheson -- Kaiden Guhle
Lane Hutson -- David Savard
Justin Barron -- Jayden Struble
Cayden Primeau
Sam Montembeault
Scratched: Michael Pezzetta, Arber Xhekaj
Injured: Patrik Laine (knee), Rafael Harvey-Pinard (broken leg)
Capitals projected lineup
Aliaksei Protas -- Dylan Strome -- Alex Ovechkin
Connor McMichael -- Pierre-Luc Dubois -- Tom Wilson
Jakub Vrana -- Michael Sgarbossa -- Andrew Mangiapane
Brandon Duhaime -- Nic Dowd -- Taylor Raddysh
Martin Fehervary -- John Carlson
Rasmus Sandin -- Dylan McIlrath
Alexander Alexeyev -- Trevor van Riemsdyk
Charlie Lindgren
Logan Thompson
Scratched: Sonny Milano, Hendrix Lapierre
Injured: Matt Roy (lower body), Jakob Chychrun (upper body)
Status report
Guhle returns after missing five games and Barron returns after missing three games, each because of an upper-body injury. … The Canadiens reassigned defenseman Logan Mailloux to Laval of the American Hockey League on Wednesday. … Chychrun, a defenseman who left in the first period of a 5-3 win against the New York Rangers on Tuesday, skated in a non-contact jersey Thursday. … Roy, a defenseman, also skated in a non-contact jersey. … Alexeyev makes his season debut.