Lane Hutson is switching training partners

Mathis Therrien
Lane Hutson is switching training partners
Credit: Capture d'écran Twitter

With the first three games of the 2026 playoffs set to take place today, the Montreal Canadiens will play Game 1 tomorrow at 5:45 p.m. against the Lightning in Tampa Bay.

Ahead of the game, the Habs practiced one last time in Brossard at the CN Complex before flying to Florida later today.

So, naturally, we were keeping a close eye on the forward lines and defensive pairings during practice.

My colleague Charles-Alexis Brisebois was on site for this final practice in Quebec before the start of the series, and he noted several interesting things.

First, even before practice began, we noticed that the first rink at the Brossard complex was hidden behind curtains for quite some time.

What was the Habs trying to hide? If we really speculate, was it Noah Dobson?

After that, practice was finally able to start as usual, and the many fans in attendance were treated to a very intense session by the Habs players.

As for the lineup itself, well, the only change we noticed is on defense, where Lane Hutson's partner is now Kaiden Guhle instead of Alexandre Carrier.

Martin St-Louis has therefore shuffled things up a bit to change two defensive pairs, pairing Carrier—who will most likely return to the lineup tomorrow—with Mike Matheson instead of Hutson.

Hutson and Carrier together might have been too small a defensive pairing for the playoffs, especially against Tampa.

The top-4 could look like this tomorrow, with Jayden Struble and Arber Xhekaj rounding out the defensive corps.

As for the offense, the lines haven't changed in the last three practices, except when Nick Suzuki was absent.

Barring a surprise, we'll see this exact lineup of the four trios tomorrow night in Game 1.

And in net, Dobes looked like a number one, unsurprisingly, while we saw more of a rotation between Jacob Fowler and Samuel Montembeault.

In short, everything seems to be in place for the start of this series, which will undoubtedly be thrilling.


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