Montreal Canadiens looking for another victory ahead of the New Year

MONTREAL, QC - OCTOBER 30: Brendan Gallagher #11 of the Montreal Canadiens skates for the puck against the Dallas Stars in the NHL game at the Bell Centre on October 30, 2018 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. (Photo by Francois Lacasse/NHLI via Getty Images)
MONTREAL, QC - OCTOBER 30: Brendan Gallagher #11 of the Montreal Canadiens skates for the puck against the Dallas Stars in the NHL game at the Bell Centre on October 30, 2018 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. (Photo by Francois Lacasse/NHLI via Getty Images)

The Dallas Stars will be the final opponent for the Montreal Canadiens in 2018 seeing Antti Niemi get his third start in a row.

It’s one more game in 2018 for the Montreal Canadiens. The team went into Florida and walked out with a victory over the Florida Panthers and an overtime loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning without Carey Price in net. Now the Habs will have a determined Dallas Stars team to take on.

Antti Niemi will be getting his third start in four nights for Montreal. The 35-year-old posted save percentages below .900 in both Florida games and allowed a total of eight goals. However, some of them can’t be hung on his head. Niemi has given the Montreal Canadiens an opportunity to win in the majority of his starts since being claimed on waivers last season and going with the veteran must’ve been Claude Julien‘s way in keeping that objective in focus.

Starting Michael McNiven could’ve been an option as well. But considering the Habs aren’t in a position to throw away games – currently in the second wild-card spot with 45 points – letting the young goaltender hold off on his debut is safer.

The Montreal Canadiens haven’t made any changes to their lineup from Saturday’s game. The only thing is Nicolas Deslauriers filling on the fourth line in favour of Matthew Peca.

Montreal Canadiens

Forward Lines

Paul ByronMax DomiJonathan Drouin
Tomas TatarPhillip DanaultBrendan Gallagher
Artturi LehkonenJesperi KotkaniemiAndrew Shaw
Kenny AgostinoMichael ChaputNicolas Deslauriers

Defence Pairs

Victor MeteShea Weber
Mike ReillyJeff Petry
Brett KulakJordie Benn

Goaltenders

Antti Niemi
Michael McNiven

Dallas Stars

Forward Lines

Jamie BennRoope HintzAlexander Radulov

Devin ShoreTyler SeguinDenis Gurianov

Blake ComeauRadek FaksaTyler Pitlick

Mattias JanmarkJason SpezzaBrett Ritchie

Defence Pairs

Esa LindellJohn Klingberg

Miro HeiskanenRoman Polak

Julius HonkaTaylor Fedun

Goaltenders

Ben Bishop

Anton Khudobin

dark. Next. An Evolved Romanov

The Habs have got their offence back, and the power play is managing to generate a lot better than they did before. It’ll be interesting to see if they can hold off a very frustrated Dallas Stars team in search of more wins.