On a day that was mostly dominated by news of a trade involving the Senators and Maple Leafs, the Habs have a serious hockey game to play tonight following a two-win weekend that has slightly piqued the hopes of Canadiens’ fans.
Tonight’s contest with the Lightning is huge, in that the Lightning are currently on a good run, wining ten of their past twelve games, and are the Habs best opponent in a couple of weeks. The wins over the Oilers and Hurricanes last weekend helped put a little ground under a team with very shaky confidence, and has positioned them to give this game tonight even more meaning than the regular rival-implications of match-ups with the Lightning.
If the Habs win tonight, they will move to within two points of the final playoff spot (assuming the Islanders lose again tonight), but will have more games played than the teams they are chasing. It would probably be best to not look at the standings with such scrutiny, and focus on this situation game-by-game. The big question is whether or not the Habs will be sellers or not come trade deadline. The outcome of this game will be a big factor in making that determination.
Line-up notes: Jeff Petry is out with a lower-body injury, so Nathan Beaulieu will draw into the lineup to fill in; Ben Scrivens starts again after back-to-back wins last weekend.
The puck drops at 7:30 PM EST.
How To Watch:
In Canada (French): RDS
In Canada (English): Sportsnet East
In the Lightning region: SUN Sports
Elsewhere: NHL GameCenter, NHL Center Ice
| Left Wing |
Center |
Right Wing |
| Alex Galchenyuk | Tomas Plekanec | Brendan Gallagher |
| Max Pacioretty | David Desharnais | Dale Weise |
| Tomas Fleischmann | Lars Eller | Sven Andrighetto |
| Brian Flynn | Torrey Mitchell | Devante Smith-Pelly |
| Left Defense |
Right Defense |
| Andrei Markov | P.K. Subban |
| Alexei Emelin | Tom Gilbert |
| Mark Barberio | Nathan Beaulieu |
| Goaltenders |
| Ben Scrivens |
| Mike Condon |
Scratched: Greg Pateryn
Injuries: Carey Price (lower body) Paul Byron (upper body), Daniel Carr (lower body), Lucas Lessio (lower body), Jeff Petry (lower body)
| Left Wing |
Center |
Right Wing |
| Ondrej Palat | Vladislav Namestnikov | Steven Stamkos |
| Alex Killorn | Tyler Johnson | Nikita Kucherov |
| J.T. Brown | Valterri Filppula | Ryan Callahan |
| Cedric Paquette | Brian Boyle | Erik Condra |
| Left Defense |
Right Defense |
| Victor Hedman | Anton Stralman |
| Matthew Carle | Andrej Sustr |
| Nikita Nesterov | Braydon Coburn |
| Goaltenders |
| Ben Bishop |
| Andrei Vasilevskiy |
Scratched: Jonathan Marchessault
Injuries: Mattias Ohlund (knee), Joel Vermin (hand), Jason Garrison (lower body)
Check out the enemy over at Raw Charge.
