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 Byron –Max Domi – Jonathan Drouin
Tomas Tatar – Phillip Danault – Brendan Gallagher
Artturi Lehkonen – Jesperi Kotkaniemi – Andrew Shaw
Kenny Agostino – Michael Chaput –Nicolas Deslauriers
Defence Pairs
Victor Mete – Shea Weber
Mike Reilly – Jeff Petry
Brett Kulak – Jordie Benn
Goaltenders
Antti Niemi
Michael McNiven
Dallas Stars
Forward Lines
Jamie Benn – Roope Hintz – Alexander Radulov
Devin Shore – Tyler Seguin – Denis Gurianov
Blake Comeau – Radek Faksa – Tyler Pitlick
Mattias Janmark – Jason Spezza – Brett Ritchie
Defence Pairs
Goaltenders
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.
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