Opening night

I'd be interested to see some logic behind the lineup decisions, I have some thoughts / critiques regarding the forward lines:
- I don't think RHP or Anderson will be playing on the 1st line.
- Dach is dreadful on faceoffs, would make sense to give him a Left Handed faceoff guy on the wing to help (Newhook, Monahan, or Dvorak) unless maybe Slaf can take faceoffs on the left side?
- Newhook will be playing in the top 6, MTL wouldn't have traded for him if they weren't going to give him an opportunity to play a bigger role (they already publicly confirmed that).
- I don't think Ylonen will succeed in a 4th line role, also I'm not sure they would start Gallagher on the 4th line either.

I'd personally go:
Monahan - Suzuki - Caufield
Newhook - Dach - Anderson
Slafkovsky - Dvorak - Gallagher
Harvey Pinard - Evans - Armia
Pezzetta / Ylonen

Top 2 lines each have a lefty / righty center combo to take faceoffs on their strong sides which should yield a big increase in faceoff percentages. I also feel every play is in an appropriate role aside from maybe Monahan who is better at C and RHP who could play up and down the lineup.

A move I would try to make if possible would be trading Dvorak somehow (replacing him with Monahan) in order to open up a spot for a new 1st line LW.

I really liked the RHP-Suzuki-Anderson combination last year. They were thrown together due to circumstances when players started to fall like flies, and they really delivered. They're #1 in GF% and #2 in xGF% among all Habs forward lines with at least 20 GP together. I think they've shown enough promise to at least start the year together. Suzuki being able to play with pretty much everyone also helps distrubuting the firepower in the top 9.

As for Dach, I did not think about it that way but I agree that having a natural center on his wing can't hurt. I'd have Monahan there.

It leaves Newhook-Dvorak-Slafkovsky on the 3rd line. As much as people criticize Dvorak, he's very steady and plays a safe game, which can't hurt Slaf's return to play and Newhook's integration. I think both eventually climb the lineup when adjustments are inevitably needed.

I don't have any problem with Ylonen on the 4th, he has more offensive upside than this role allows him to use, but he's also a good forechecker and I think his playstyle would mesh well with Evans (and Gally to a lesser extent).

I'm not really a fan of trading Dvorak right now. I don't feel there's enough certainty at center to trade him before at least the TDL (if Monahan shows he can stay healthy, and Newhook shows he can handle the 3C role which he couldn't do in Colorado). I like Dvorak and instead of having peanuts in return, I'd rather have him be a steady placeholder who takes the hard matchups they don't wanna rush the kids into.