The Habs have only managed to get one point so far on their tour of Western Conference teams, and will conclude their four-game trip tonight in Winnipeg. For some, the one point represents a win, as the Habs have maintained their spot among the lower rung of the league, giving them a small chance at winning the draft lottery, or at the very least getting a very good draft pick for themselves.
With the fate of this season already but sealed, Michel Therrien has been biding his time by mixing up the lines, and will tonight ice a lineup with Alex Galchenyuk slotted into the number one center position between the team’s best wingers in Max Pacioretty and Brendan Gallagher.
Galchenyuk has been on fire, with five goals in his past five games, including two multi-goal games. We’ll see tonight if he can carry over that fire from the left wing to the top center position many believe Galchenyuk should be training for next season.
The Jets represent yet another of Canada’s mediocre teams that is far outside a playoff position, and will look back on 2015-16 as a disappointment. After making the playoffs for the first time in modern franchise history, the Jets slipped big time compared to last season when they put up 99 points. Since the trade of captain Andrew Ladd on February 25, the Jets are 1-3-0, and find themselves on a three-game slide with the Habs coming to visit tonight.
Lineup notes: Alex Galchenyuk is slotted to center to the top line; Lars Eller will move to the wing on the second line with Tomas Plekanec replacing him in the middle; Sven Andrighetto is slotted on the second line after being a healthy scratch in Thursday’s loss to the Kings; the bottom six consists of most of the same players as Thursday’s game in L.A., but they’ve been mixed around position-wise; Mike Condon gets the start.
The puck drops at 7:00 PM EST.
How To Watch:
In Canada (French): TVAS
In Canada (English): Sportsnet
Elsewhere: NHL GameCenter, NHL Center Ice, NHL.TV
| Left Wing |
Center |
Right Wing |
| Max Pacioretty | Alex Galchenyuk | Brendan Gallagher |
| Lars Eller | Tomas Plekanec | Sven Andrighetto |
| Jacob de la Rose | Phillip Danault | Torrey Mitchell |
| Stefan Matteau | Michael McCarron | Paul Byron |
| Left Defense |
Right Defense |
| Andrei Markov | P.K. Subban |
| Alexei Emelin | Greg Pateryn |
| Morgan Ellis | Mark Barberio |
| Goaltenders |
| Mike Condon |
| Ben Scrivens |
Scratched: Lucas Lessio, Victor Bartley, Mike Brown
Injuries: Carey Price (lower body), Daniel Carr (lower body), Jeff Petry (lower body), Brian Flynn (lower body), David Desharnais (broken foot), Tom Gilbert (lower body), Nathan Beaulieu (lower body)
| Left Wing |
Center |
Right Wing |
| Drew Stafford | Mark Scheifele | Blake Wheeler |
| Mathieu Perreault | Alexander Burmistrov | Joel Armia |
| Chris Thorburn | Adam Lowry | Mark Dano |
| Matt Halischuk | Andrew Copp | JC Lipon |
| Left Defense |
Right Defense |
| Toby Enstrom | Dustin Byfuglien |
| Joshua Morrissey | Tyler Myers |
| Ben Chiarot | Paul Postma |
| Goaltenders |
| Ondrej Pavelec |
| Michael Hutchinson |
Scratched: Anthony Peluso
Injuries: Grant Clitsome (back), Bryan Little (neck), Mark Stuart (hand)
Check out the enemy over at Arctic Ice Hockey.
