Kaiden Guhle To Make Season Debut

The Montreal Canadiens announced that defenseman Kaiden Guhle will be making his season debut tonight against the Detroit Red Wings

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Kaiden Guhle missed the Canadiens’ first four games of the season due to recovering from off-season adductor muscle surgery. Last year, the 24-year-old played 39 regular season games, scoring two goals and 11 points, while having a +5 rating. He also suited up in all 19 playoff games for the Canadiens, where his eight assists were second among all defensemen on the team behind Lane Hutson. The Canadiens defenseman led all players on the team in hits during last year’s playoff run with 51.

Guhle will be replacing forward Florian Xhekaj in the lineup, who will be out with an undisclosed injury for tonight’s game. The Canadiens will be playing with 11 forwards and 7 defensemen, as both forwards Ivan Demidov and Oliver Kapanen are also still injured. 

Xhekaj played in two games so far this season for the Canadiens, in which he has been held scoreless while having a team-worst -4 rating and averaging a team-low 7:36 in ice time. 

The Montreal Canadiens also announced that goaltender Jacob Fowler will be making his second straight start against the Detroit Red Wings. Fowler made 15 saves on 18 shots in a 5-2 loss to the Nashville Predators on Thursday night (two goals were empty-netters). 

After losing three straight games, the Canadiens will be looking to turn their luck around against the Red Wings, who are coming off a 6-3 loss to the Seattle Kraken on Friday night.

Here are the Montreal Canadiens expected lines for Saturday night’s game against the Detroit Red Wings:

Forwards:

Cole Caufield – Nick Suzuki – Juraj Slafkovsky 

Chris Kreider – Alex Newhook – Josh Anderson

Alexandre Texier – Phillip Danault – Zach Bolduc

Jake Evans – Kirby Dach

Defense:

Mike Matheson – Alexandre Carrier

Lane Hutson – Noah Dobson 

Arber Xhekaj – Adam Engstrom

Kaiden Guhle

Goalies:

Jacob Fowler

Jakub Dobes