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Winning less than they have been losing over the past ten games (4-4-2), the Canadiens sit atop the Eastern Conference, up 2 points on the New York Rangers who hold 3 games at hand. The Habs are toiling lately, grinding out wins against teams like the Florida Panthers, and barely coming away with the win. A 4-0 win against Carolina Thursday was a flash of dominance the Habs are capable of, though against a team that was 34 points below them in the standings.
This is the 3rd game of a 7 game road-trip for the Sharks who lost in Winnipeg on Tuesday and won on Thursday in Toronto. The Habs haven't scored against the Sharks since December 2, 2011 when this was Pierre Gauthier's team. Tonight's game is important for the win column, and playoff positioning, and very much for pride. With so many teams chasing the same goal at this time of year, team cohesion and individual confidence are the keys to the castle.
The Habs have a lot to be proud of this year, most notably, Carey Price enters the game tonight trying to capture his 40th win of a season for the first time in his career. With a record of 39-15-4, .937 sv %, 1.89 GAA and 8 shutouts, Carey Price is staging one of the best goaltending performances in NHL history. It goes without saying that too much of this team's success depends on Carey Price, but with numbers like these, it's hard not to start dreaming of what's possible when the snow melts. But first, the Habs have the Sharks in front of them, and if they can't score again, even the greatest heroics from Carey Price will be in vain.
The puck drops at 7:00 PM EST. Jeff Petry is in tonight in place of Nathan Beaulieu.
In Canada (French): TVA
Left Wing |
Center |
Right Wing |
Max Pacioretty | David Desharnais | Brendan Gallagher |
Alex Galchenyuk | Tomas Plekanec | P.A. Parenteau |
Jacob de la Rose | Lars Eller | Devante Smith-Pelly |
Brandon Prust | Manny Malholtra | Dale Weise |
Left Defense |
Right Defense |
Andrei Markov | P.K. Subban |
Tom Gilbert | Jeff Petry |
Alexei Emelin | Greg Pateryn |
Goaltenders |
Carey Price |
Dustin Tokarski |
Scratched: Mike Weaver, Sergei Gonchar, Nathan Beaulieu
Injuries: Torrey Mitchell (upper body), Brian Flynn (upper body)
Left Wing |
Center |
Right Wing |
Melker Karlsson | Joe Thornton | Joe Pavelski |
Matt Nieto | Logan Couture | Tommy Wingels |
Patrick Marleau | Chris Tierney | Tomas Hertl |
Danil Tarasov | Ben Smith | Barclay Goodrow |
Left Defense |
Right Defense |
Matt Irwin | Brent Burns |
Justin Braun | Brenden Dillon |
Marc-Edouard Vlasic | Mirco Mueller |
Goaltenders |
Antti Niemi |
Alex Stalock |
Scratched: Scott Hannan, John Scott
Injuries: Mike Brown (broken fibula), Raffi Torres (knee)
Check out the enemy over at Fear The Fin.