It seems most nights Carey Price hits the ice this season, he’s on the verge of tying or breaking a team record. Tonight when the Canadiens take on the Nashville Predators, Carey Price will be in a position to bring himself one win closer to tying Jacques Plante’s team record of 42 wins in a season, and one shutout (shh!) away from overtaking Bill Durnan for 4th all-time in shutouts in Canadiens’ history.
After a difficult start to the month of March that saw the Habs win 1 game in the first 6 (1-3-2) and outscored by an average of 2.83 – 1.33, the Canadiens are on a run of 4-1-0 and outscoring their opponents an average 2.80 – 1.40. The Habs are coming off one of their best performances of the season, a 2-0 victory over the Sharks that still saw the Habs utilizing their best strategy to win: Carey Price mixed in with a little bit of defensive posturing. The Habs carried a 1-0 lead into the third period, and went into lockdown mode with about 13 minutes left in the game, generating only 3 shot attempts, while facing 19 from the Sharks to win the game.
The Nashville Predators are currently in the midst of their worst stretch of hockey this season, 3-6-1, and have been overtaken for the Central Division lead by the St. Louis Blues. The Predators will be trying to win 2 in a row for the first time since Feb 22-24, a stretch of 12 games.
The Habs will be shooting on the league’s second best goalie in Pekka Rinne (okay, arguably the best, but I’m waiting to hear your arguments…), which will make their challenge more difficult tonight than the last time these two teams played in January. Scoring has been an issue in the month of March for the Habs, who have only been able to produce 22 goals in 11 games. Tonight’s contest may only call for 1 or 2 given the calibre of goalies on the ice.
The puck drops at 8:00 PM EST. Torrey Mitchell is back in the line-up after missing the last 4 games with an upper body injury. Manny Malholtra comes out of the lineup to make room for Mitchell, who has an average faceoff % of 68.75 since joining the Habs on March 2.
In Canada (English): Sportsnet East
In Canada (French): RDS
In the Predators region: FS-TN
Elsewhere: NHL Center Ice or NHL Gamecenter Live
| Left Wing |
Center |
Right Wing |
| Max Pacioretty | David Desharnais | P.A. Parenteau |
| Alex Galchenyuk | Tomas Plekanec | Brendan Gallagher |
| Jacob de la Rose | Lars Eller | Devante Smith-Pelly |
| Brandon Prust | Torrey Mitchell | Dale Weise |
| Left Defense |
Right Defense |
| Andrei Markov | P.K. Subban |
| Nathan Beaulieu | Jeff Petry |
| Alexei Emelin | Greg Pateryn |
| Goaltenders |
| Carey Price |
| Dustin Tokarski |
Scratched: Mike Weaver, Sergei Gonchar, Manny Malholtra, Brian Flynn
Injuries: Tom Gilbert (upper body)
| Left Wing |
Center |
Right Wing |
| Colin Wilson | Mike Ribeiro | Gabriel Bourque |
| Viktor Arvidsson | Mike Fisher | Craig Smith |
| Filip Forsberg | Calle Jarnkrok | Viktor Stalberg |
| Taylor Beck | Paul Gaustad | Mike Santorelli |
| Left Defense |
Right Defense |
| Roman Josi | Shea Weber |
| Seth Jones | Cody Franson |
| Mattias Ekholm | Ryan Ellis |
| Goaltenders |
| Pekka Rinne |
| Carter Hutton |
Scratched: Victor Bartley
Injuries: Anton Volchenkov (lower body), Eric Nystrom (lower body), James Neal (upper body)
Check out the enemy over at On The Forecheck.
