Montreal Canadiens: Andrew Shaw out, Tomas Plekanec in for game 1000

The Montreal Canadiens may be without Andrew Shaw for Monday’s game as the Detroit Red Wings are in town, but Tomas Plekanec will be in to play his 1000th.

It’s not only the NHL regular season that has picked up but flu season as well. The Montreal Canadiens took to the ice this morning ahead of their 7:30 PM ET game against the Detroit Red Wings. The team is coming off a shootout win on Saturday defeating the Pittsburgh Penguins 4-3 and look to continue their winnings ways on an Atlantic Division rival.

Speaking of that game, Carey Price wasn’t involved. The 31-year-old sat out as he was dealing with the flu forcing the Habs to recall Charlie Lindgren from the Laval Rocket to back up Antti Niemi who was the team’s starter. A similar situation may occur today with Andrew Shaw.

The Montreal Canadiens Twitter account tweeted that Shaw isn’t practicing due to the flu. It’s not a wild guess to say he most likely has what Price did. There hasn’t been any confirmation as to whether it’s bad enough to keep him out of the lineup though. If so, we can expect Matthew Peca to slot in on the right wing in place of Shaw.

That could create a speedy line along the wings with Charles Hudon on the left.

It’ll also be a milestone night for Tomas Plekanec as he’ll be suiting up for his 1000th game in his career.

Habs fans saw this moment coming for the veteran even though he was made a healthy scratch to start the year. There was also a slight possibility he may not even be with the Montreal Canadiens after his short departure in the latter half of last season. However, he made it clear where his priorities were and signed a one-year deal with the Habs.

Seeing how well the organization takes care of its history, it’ll be interesting and exciting to see how the Montreal Canadiens honour Plekanec’s career. He’ll be walking into this game with 232 goals and 373 assists. Perhaps he adds to those totals as the Habs look for win number three.