Montreal Canadiens Mixing Up The Lines and Find Some Interesting Combinations

The Montreal Canadiens face the Nashville Predators tonight. With 12 games to play in a season that will not include playoffs, they are trying out some interesting line combinations tonight.

The Montreal Canadiens have 12 games left in a season that started promising but it surely to go out with a whimper and not a bang. The playoffs will be avoided for the third consecutive year as the team will play out the string here over the next four weeks with no chance of extending their season beyond 82 games.

Up until last weekend, the coaching staff appeared to be putting rosters together with the assumption the team was still in the playoff race. They were starting Carey Price in goal for 17 of 18 games, they were rushing injured players like Shea Weber, Jonathan Drouin and Paul Byron back into the lineup and stating to the media that they still had something to play for.

Then, Charlie Lindgren started two of four games, Drouin was shut down again and the overall atmosphere around the team proved to be more dreary as a realization long accepted by the fanbase finally settled into the dressing room as well.

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It is a difficult thing for an athlete to admit their team has no chance of making the playoffs and they are essentially playing out the string with a dozen or so meaningless games. However, that reality has finally set in in Montreal.

It continues tonight, with some interesting line combinations for this evening’s contest with the Nashville Predators. Up to here, the Habs had relied heavily on several combinations up front that they did not deviate from, but that appears to be changing tonight.

The biggest change is moving Phillip Danault off the top line with Brendan Gallagher. The pair have been on the same line for essentially every game this season and almost all of last season as well. Tomas Tatar has been their primary left winger but he is out with injury tonight.

So, the top line this evening will see Max Domi centering Charles Hudon and Gallagher. This will be a huge opportunity for Hudon and probably his last if he doesn’t take advantage of this situation. Ha has proven to be an excellent goal scoring threat at the AHL level for years, but has not been able to translate that to the Canadiens lineup. If he can’t score on a line with Domi and Gallagher, he can’t score at the NHL level.

The second line will feature Danault between Paul Byron and Joel Armia. This is the most interesting line to me tonight and I will be keeping a close eye on what matchups they get and how they play, especially defensively. I like Danault as a player but I don’t think someone who has maxed out at 13 goals in his career should necessarily be the first line center. Danault between Byron and Armia is a line that should be able to score some, but defend against anyone.

The third line will have Nick Suzuki with Artturi Lehkonen and Jordan Weal. With opportunity for some players (Hudon, Domi) comes disappointment for others (Suzuki). In fairness, Suzuki has not played well lately and has hit a bit of a wall according to his head coach. Moving him down the lineup but still allowing him to play center isn’t the worst idea. Just don’t call him out for not scoring when his wingers are Lehkonen and Weal.

The fourth line consists of Jonathan Drouin rotating in with Lukas Vejdemo, Jake Evans and Dale Weise. if Drouin doesn’t play, this is an AHL line that is filling in for the many injuries that have occurred in Montreal lately. Evans probably sticks around if everyone was healthy, especially with veterans being traded on deadline day, but Vejdemo and Weise would be the first two players sent down if everyone was available.

The defence pairings stayed intact with Ben Chiarot partnering with Shea Weber, Brett Kulak with Jeff Petry and Xavier Ouellet with Christian Folin on the bottom pair.

It is the forward lines that caught my eye when I saw them. I’m really interested to see how Domi and Gallagher click together and I can’t wait to watch Danault, Byron and Armia shut down the top players on Nashville and see if they can counter them with an offensive attack. I’m not sure how much to expect from the bottom six, but Suzuki may start to find his game again with less pressure and Evans looks better and better every game he plays.

There is not much fun in cheering for wins anymore when we already know the Habs will miss the playoffs. Even if they win all 12 games they would only have 95 points which probably won’t be enough to get in.

However, it will be fun to watch the top six tonight and how they gel together. We could see some of these combinations carry long into the future if they play well over the next few weeks.