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Auld Gets The Isles, White Called Up

After last night’s display of goonery and defensive breakdowns the Canadiens look to Alex Auld tonight against the New York Islanders. Auld has one win against the Islanders this season, allowing one goal on thirty one shots against in a 3-1 win on October 29th. Auld goes into the game carrying at 4-2-0 record in 8 games played, with a 2.17 GAA and .929 save percentage.

After several instances last night in Boston where Bruins players attempted to injure Canadiens players, it seems there are a couple guys battling some minor injuries according to Jacques Martin and the Montreal Gazette. Dave Stubbs reported on Habs Inside Out that Martin would choose his lineup based on the pregame warm up.

To deal with the injuries Ryan White has been called up from the Hamilton Bulldogs. The scrappy grinder has struggled with knee injuries this season in the AHL but has come on of late. White registered a fight and a +1 rating in three games in his previous call up to Montreal this season. He has 3 goals, 9 assists, 77 PIM and a -5 rating in 33 games for Hamilton this season.

The leading scorers for the Habs against the Isles in the previous three games this season are Tomas Plekanec with 3 goals and 1 assist, while Andrei Kostitsyn and Jeff Halpern have both chipped in 1 goal and 2 assists a piece. In an odd turn of events, the Islander’s leading scorer against the Canadiens was James Wisniewski with 2 goals and 2 assists. Wisniewski will face his former team for the first time tonight.

The Habs are likely to face Mikko Koskinen in goal, who allowed 5 goals on 26 shots in his only NHL start of the season against the Maple Leafs on February 8th.

UPDATE: Hal Gill (upper body) and Mathieu Darche (lower body) are out tonight. They’ll be replaced by Alexandre Picard and Ryan White respectively.

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