Montreal Canadiens: What Does a Healthy Habs Lineup Look Like?

Tomas Tatar – Phillip Danault – Brendan Gallagher

You can call it the team’s first line or you can call it their third line if you like. Either way, there is no question this has been the team’s most important line for three consecutive seasons. Even this year, when they struggled at times to score, and were broken up for a while, this trio still proved to be the best on the team.

Simply put, they score often enough and almost never let the other team score. There are other lines around the league that score more frequently, but it is hard to find one that allows less goals against. Giving this team plenty of ice time guarantees you are going to outscore the other team for a significant portion of a playoff series.

They might only outscore their opponent 4-1 over a seven game series, but that would be the other team’s best line scoring only one goal. That’s a huge advantage and if the Habs are healthy, there is no question they will be leaning on this trio every night in the postseason.

Tyler Toffoli – Nick Suzuki – Josh Anderson

While the Danault line would be considered more of a shutdown line than a scoring trio, this line would be looking to fill their opponent’s net with pucks.

Tyler Toffoli is tied with Alex Ovechkin for fifth in the league in goals. Suzuki is the team’s most creative centre and Anderson provides plenty of scoring punch to go with his speed, size and physical prowess.

If the Danault line is given the toughest matchups, it would allow this line a little more freedom to go for offence when on the ice against team’s second defence pairing and a second or third forward line.