First off, Andrei Markov was absent from practice. He left the game early on Saturday night due to a lower-body injury, and did not return.
Andrei Markov est absent de l’entraînement ce matin. Si on doit rappeler un joueur, pas compliqué, les IceCaps sont aussi à Brossard.
— Renaud Lavoie (@renlavoietva) December 19, 2016
Fortunately the IceCaps are also in Brossard this morning, which means if the Canadiens need to recall someone like Joel Hanley or Tom Parisi, they won’t have to wait for their prospect to travel thousands of kilometers to join the team.
As for the forwards, here’s the current setup:
#Habs practice lines
Pacioretty – Danault – Radulov
Lehkonen – Plekanec – Flynn
Byron – Mitchell – Gallagher
Carr-McCarron-Terry/Andrighetto— John Lu (@JohnLuTSNMtl) December 19, 2016
Michael McCarron remains in the centre position on the fourth line, with Chris Terry and Sven Andrighetto as the alternate wingers.
Brendan Gallagher is still on the third line, whereas Brian Flynn is now on the second.
Keep in mind the Canadiens distribute their ice time very evenly among the top three lines. At the moment the Habs are running something closer to a middle-nine/bottom-three setup, as opposed to the regular top-three, middle-six, bottom-three lineup.
It’s also worth noting that Andrew Shaw has now been added to the injured reserve.
On defence:
#Habs practice D & G:
Emelin – Weber
Barberio – Petry
Beaulieu – RedmondPrice
Montoya— John Lu (@JohnLuTSNMtl) December 19, 2016
There’s no surprises on defence, except perhaps that Zach Redmond replaced Mark Barberio as the sixth defender. This comes on the heels of Andrei Markov’s injury, which has now slotted Barberio on the second pairing.
