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The Canadiens practiced in Arizona before travelling to Denver yesterday and judging by the lines and pairings used then, we can expect some changes from the last game. For now, at least, the Dach at center experiment appears to be over as he’s back on the top line alongside Suzuki and Caufield. As a result, Jonathan Drouin gets to play in between Slafkovsky and Anderson on the second line. Over the last few weeks, the Slafkovsky and Anderson duo has worked well but the coaching staff has yet to find the ideal center for them, hopefully, Sean Monahan can return soon.

As for the bottom six, it remains as it was at the start of the game in Arizona, meaning that Richard is back on the 4th line with Evans and Armia, but we now know that St-Louis won’t hesitate to move him up if he’s unhappy with someone’s performance, as he was with Slafkovsky on Monday. Everyone also stays put on the blue line, which is not surprising since the Habs only have 6 healthy defensemen right now.

With David Savard on IR, the Canadiens do have a free roster spot and they could potentially recall a defenseman from the Laval Rocket. Candidates for a recall include Justin Barron who has recently come back from injury in the AHL and he seems to have found a nice offensive rhythm, Nicolas Beaudin who was acquired from Chicago in return for Cameron Hillis and Corey Schueneman who played 24 games with the Habs last season.

Tonight, Arturri Lehkonen will be skating on the Avalanche’s first line and whether or not there are injuries in Colorado, he has been playing a big role with the team. Tonight, he’ll be lining up with Compher and Rantanen but he has been used alongside the later and MacKinnon this season when everyone was healthy. The former Habs draft pick has really found a home in Colorado and after winning the Cup with the Avs, he signed a 5-year deal worth 4.5 M per season. The puck drops at 8:00 tonight and even with some star players missing, the Canadiens won’t find it easy to compete with the Colorado outfit.

Stanley Cup Champ pic.twitter.com/NzlwCKd1nh

— Eric Engels (@EricEngels) December 21, 2022

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