The Montreal Canadiens were back at practice this morning, and it seems like the bug that was affecting Alexander Radulov and Alexei Emelin passed, as both were on the ice for practice, as were the rest of their healthy teammates.
Only Brian Flynn and Nikita Nesterov are not on the ice for practice. Both injured players. Otherwise, everyone is out there. #TSN690 #Habs
— Amanda Stein (@amandacstein) March 17, 2017
At forward, with Radulov and Brendan Gallagher back in, the lines looked a lot like the ones used against the Chicago Blackhawks and it appears that Michael McCarron will once again be a healthy scratch.
Notably, the top line of Max Pacioretty, Alex Galchenyuk and Radulov seems to be staying intact.
Of note, Andreas Martinsen was splitting time on the fourth line rotation with Dwight King.
#Habs practice fwds
Pacioretty – Galchenyuk – Radulov
Byron – Plekanec – Gallagher
Lehkonen – Danault – Shaw
King/Martinsen – Ott – Mitchell— John Lu (@JohnLuTSNMtl) March 17, 2017
Galchenyuk also practiced on the first PP unit.
#Habs Powerplay:
1st Wave:
Radulov-Byron-Pacioretty
Weber-Galchenyuk2nd Wave:
Lehkonen-Danault-Shaw
Markov-Petry#TSN690— Amanda Stein (@amandacstein) March 17, 2017
On defence, Alexei Emelin was the odd man out, as the Canadiens put Nathan Beaulieu back with Jordie Benn. Brandon Davidson took the spot next to Jeff Petry.
#Habs are doing 5-on-5 drills and these are the D pairings:
Markov – Weber
Davidson – Petry
Beaulieu – Benn
Emelin rotating— John Lu (@JohnLuTSNMtl) March 17, 2017
But we might not want to read too much into these.
Habs defence pairings are all over the place this morning, hard to judge anything off them.
— Аrpon Basu (@ArponBasu) March 17, 2017
The Canadiens and Senators will play in back to back games on Saturday and Sunday in what will be a battle for top spot in the Atlantic Division.
