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Canadiens vs. Avalanche Game Thread, roster, lines, and how to watch

To win or not to win?

I think Shakespeare asked that. Regardless, the Habs are in Colorado, putting on a brave face with a mountain to climb to reach their goal of making the playoffs. For these guys, there’s no question: just win.

But for us fans, the reality is setting in that the amount of winning required to make the playoffs is far beyond what this team can achieve. But that won’t stop the players from putting in their best effort within the restraints of the process and system.

As we have seen of late, only a perfect, all-around effort is good enough to win, and with a huge loss to the Coyotes on Monday night where the effort was less than stellar, perhaps the pressure of being perfect has finally cracked the outer resilience of this team. It would be nice to see these guys having fun playing hockey again, but it doesn’t seem that’s part of the process right now.

The Avalanche are in a serious playoff fight right now after a pretty poor start to their season. Occupying the final playoff spot in the West, the Avalanche will likely come out hungry and looking forward to the opportunity to pound out two points against an opponent that has slipped far below the level they were playing the last time these two teams met in November.

Lineup Notes: Ben Scrivens gets the start after Mike Condon was hung out to dry for six goals in Arizona on Monday; David Desharnais is out with a lower body injury, which moves Lars Eller up to the second line; Lucas Lessio draws in to fill the absent lineup spot left by Desharnais’ injury.

The puck drops at 8:00 PM EST.

How To Watch:
In Canada (French): RDS
In Canada (English): Sportsnet
In the Avalanche region: Altitude
Elsewhere:  NHL GameCenter, NHL Center Ice

Montreal Canadiens Projected Lineup
Left Wing
Center
Right Wing
Alex Galchenyuk Tomas Plekanec Brendan Gallagher
Max Pacioretty Lars Eller Sven Andrighetto
Paul Byron Jacob de le Rose Dale Weise
Lucas Lessio Torrey Mitchell Devante Smith-Pelly

Left Defense
Right Defense
Andrei Markov P.K. Subban
Nathan Beaulieu Tom Gilbert
Alexei Emelin Greg Pateryn

Goaltenders
Ben Scrivens
Mike Condon

Scratched: Mark Barberio, Tomas Fleischmann
Injuries:
Carey Price (lower body), Daniel Carr (lower body), Jeff Petry (lower body), Brian Flynn (lower body), David Desharnais (lower body)

Colorado Avalanche Projected Lineup
Left Wing
Center
Right Wing
Mikhail Grigorenko Matt Duchene Jarome Iginla
Gabriel Landeskog Carl Soderberg Blake Comeau
Alex Tanguay Nathan Mackinnon Jack Skille
Cody McLoed John Mitchell Andreas Martinsen

Left Defense
Right Defense
Francois Beauchemin Erik Johnson
Nick Holden Tyson Barrie
Chris Bigras Andrew Bodnarchuk

Goaltenders
Semyon Varlamov
Calvin Pickard

Scratched: Nate Guerin, Zach Redmond
Injuries: Reto Berra (ankle), Ben Street (chest), Brad Stuart (back surgery), Jesse Winchester (concussion-like symptoms)

Check out the enemy over at Mile High Hockey.

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