It’s the final game before the deadline for the Montreal Canadiens and another opportunity for teams to take a look and see if there’s anyone worth pursuing.
Tonight will be a different game for the Montreal Canadiens than Thursday. The Tampa Bay Lightning are a top team in the league and are looking to increase the gap they have on Boston. With the Bruins recent surge and games in hand on both the Lightning and Leafs, there’s a chance they can overtake them for the top spot in the Atlantic Division.
Save for the usual absentees from the Habs, Tomas Plekanec will also be sitting out. It’s the right decision and the same thing the Rangers did as they made both Rick Nash and Michael Grabner healthy scratches before. Grabner was later moved to the New Jersey Devils, and Plekanec may be following the same path.
However, the Habs have a game to play first. Logan Shaw will also be out of the lineup allowing Daniel Carr and Jacob de La Rose to play. The two will be joining Nicolas Deslauriers on the fourth line bumping Byron Froese up to replace Plekanec in between Alex Galchenyuk and Charles Hudon.
There won’t be any changes to the blue line and rightly so. All three pairings were solid against the Rangers especially Noah Juulsen who was a star in his NHL debut. The 20-year-old played a little north of 17 minutes and saw time on the penalty kill as well. It looks like Claude Julien‘s trust in him grew fairly but handling the Lightning’s offence will be a tougher challenge.
The Lightning are coming off two wins against the Capitals and Senators. Brayden Point has three goals over the course of the two games while both Andrei Vasilevsky and Louis Domingue gave Tampa quality starts. Nikita Kucherov is also still on his way to back-to-back 40-goal seasons after scoring his 32nd against Washington.
All signs point to a rough time for the Habs, but they played the Lightning very well the last time the two teams met. It was a tie game at one that finally ended in a shootout, but Montreal kept the deadly offence of Tampa at bay (punch line drum). It may be difficult for them to repeat the same effort but that’s what Julien will be expecting from his hockey club.
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What are your expectations for the game? Will Plekanec be moved before Monday? Let us know in the comments.