It is only a pre-season game, but with only 27 players in camp, it feels like this could be a regular season lineup.
The Montreal Canadiens had their morning skate before heading to Quebec City to face the Boston Bruins, and the lines were as follows:
Habe morning skate lines: Pacioretty-Galchenyuk-Gallagher; Radulov-Plekanec-Shaw; Lehkonen-Desharnais-Carr; Danault-Flynn-McCarron
— Аrpon Basu (@ArponBasu) October 4, 2016
Brian Flynn took the place of Paul Byron who will be out with the flu after being on the initial lineup sheet.
Brian Flynn remplacera Paul Byron (virus) dans l’alignement ce soir à Québec Brian Flynn will replace Paul Byron (flu) tonight vs Boston.
— Canadiens Montréal (@CanadiensMTL) October 4, 2016
After skating on the second line with Tomas Plekanec and Alexander Radulov, Artturi Lehkonen appears to be on a line with Daniel Carr and David Desharnais. This means that Andrew Shaw will return from his suspension where he started it, although with Plekanec and not Flynn as the line’s centre.
UPDATE 2: It appears the Canadiens threw us for a loop. It looks like Lehkonen will indeed play with Tomas Plekanec and Alexander Radulov like was practiced yesterday.
So according to both Shaw and Desharnais, today’s lines were for special teams only. They are playing together tonight. #preseasonintrigue
— Аrpon Basu (@ArponBasu) October 4, 2016
The fourth line appears to be a final audition for Michael McCarron and Brian Flynn is looking to make his way into a lineup he may not have been in if everyone is healthy.
On defence, Shea Weber made his first appearance at practice and although he won’t play tonight, we may have an idea who his partner may be.
#Habs D & G vs #Bruins:
Markov-Petry
Sergachev-Beaulieu
Emelin-Redmond
(Weber – Pateryn)Montoya
Condon
(Price)Scratches in parentheses
— John Lu (@JohnLuTSNMtl) October 4, 2016
The big surprise is that Michel Therrien has split Andrei Markov and Alexei Emelin and placed them with different partners. The fact that neither of those partners is Nathan Beaulieu means that they have positioned themselves to have a Weber-Beaulieu pairing with Emelin getting either Greg Pateryn or Zach Redmond.
UPDATE 2: It appears there is more evidence of that. However, due to the above update, this could be for special teams only. However, it does explain why Beaulieu would be on the right side. We’ll have to see what happens during game action tonight or even perhaps during warm ups.
Weber is rotating with Shergachev to the left of Beaulieu. Sorry, that wasn’t clear. https://t.co/ReGQDRxpUK
— Аrpon Basu (@ArponBasu) October 4, 2016
Now, these are only one practice and a pre-season game but we appear to be getting a look at how the Canadiens plan on lining up against Buffalo on October 13.
