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The Canadiens announced yesterday that head coach Martin St.Louis would be back with the team for the game against the Avalanche. In its press release, the team explained St.Louis had to go be with his family because his youngest son, Mason, experienced complications and had to be hospitalized following a hockey injury. With the episode now behind him, the bench boss will hope to stop Colorado’s 9-game winning streak.

After losing four games in a row, the Canadiens bested the Kraken on Sunday night with a 5-1 win. Tonight, Montreal will be facing two familiar faces: Jonathan Drouin and Arturri Lehkonen. The former signed as a free agent with the Avalanche after the Canadiens let his contract run out. Reunited with his junior teammate Nathan MacKinnon, Drouin currently has 46 points in 68 games and is well on his way to having his most productive season ever. The Quebecer got 53 points twice in his career, once with the Lightning and once with the Canadiens. As for Lehkonen, he’s only played 34 games this season but still has 25 points to show for it. Both former Habs are currently flanking MacKinnon on Colorado’s top line.

So far, the Lehkonen-Barron trade seems to have been more beneficial for Colorado. While Lehkonen is skating on Colorado’s top line, Justin Barron still hasn’t established himself in the NHL. Starting next season, the right-shot defenseman will have to go through waivers to be sent down to Laval. With Logan Mailloux knocking on the NHL door, it will be interesting to see what the Canadiens’ blue line corps will look like next season.

On the Canadiens’ side, Juraj Slafkovsky will try to keep his point streak going and make it an eight-game in a row with a point. Even though Cayden Primeau signed an impressive win on Sunday night, expect Samuel Montembeault to be back in his net to take on Colorado. The game starts at 21:00 and will be Montreal’s last game out west this season.

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