|
Pregame: Canadiens vs Lightning |
|
|
|
|
|
Follow me @KarineHains for all updates about the Montreal Canadiens and women's hockey
After a disastrous outing against one of the worst teams of the league, the Canadiens will try to bounce back taking on Tampa Bay who’s currently in third place in the Atlantic. To do so, Martin St-Louis has decided to mix things up a little and for a second Saturday in a row, Kirby Dach will find himself at center.
This time though, he will be between Juraj Slafkovsky on one side and Jonathan Drouin on the other one while Josh Anderson will go back to the first line. For the first time this season, the Canadiens will have their 3 most talented forwards (on paper at least) in the top 6.
There’s no denying that Jonathan Drouin has been underwhelming since he was acquired at the high cost of Mikhail Sergachev (who’s currently nursing an injury and considered day-to-day), but he’s still a talented and highly skilled player. With just a few months left to his current contract, Drouin needs to impress if he wants to land a new contract in the NHL.
Tonight, Evgeni Dadonov will find himself on the press gallery as Michael Pezzetta will re-enter the line-up, joining Evans and Pitlick on the 4th line and Christian Dvorak will be saddled with Mike Hoffman and the enigmatic Joel Armia.
On the blue line, Chris Wideman will be back upstairs as Mike Matheson is ready to get back into the swing of things and he will do it with Jordan Harris at his side, meaning that Xhekaj and Kovacevic will be reunited on the bottom pairing.
Jake Allen will be between the pipes even if he didn’t exactly shine against the Ducks on Thursday. Tonight’s match-up will be the Habs’ last game in Montreal this year as their next 8 games will be played on the road, they’ll only be back on home ice on January 5th against the Rangers. Tampa comes to town riding a 4- game winning streak and they’ve got an 8-2 record in their last 10 outings.
Montreal Canadiens Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»