The Montreal Canadiens will need to be careful not to be looking ahead to the All-Star break as they must first focus and play the New York Islanders in Brooklyn this evening. It has been a rough season for the Islanders who have not lived up to high expectations in 2016-2017. Nearly ten days ago they fired head coach Jack Capuano and made Doug Weight their interim head coach. Since then the team has responded with a 3-0-1 record, the most recent being a 4-2 victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets. The Islanders are now tied with five other teams with 49 points in the basement of the Eastern Conference but are just five points behind and hold three games in hand on the Philadelphia Flyers for the second wild card spot.

For their part the Canadiens are coming off of a dominant 5-1 win over the Calgary Flames. With Carey Price getting the start in net, his teammates will be doing their best to make amends for blowing his shutout with just a second left in the game against the Flames. Youngsters such as Jacob De La Rose, Daniel Carr and Sven Andrighetto will need to build off of their strong play as of late and continue to prove that they belong to stay in the NHL as David Desharnais practiced in a regular jersey for the first time on Wednesday and will be ready to make his return to the lineup sooner rather than later. Alex Galchenyuk continues to be out day-to-day and his status will be updated when the Canadiens return from the All-Star break on Monday.

The lines for the Canadiens remain unchanged:

Pacioretty-Danault-Radulov
Lehkonen-Plekanec-Byron
Shaw-Flynn-Andrighetto
Carr-De La Rose-Mitchell

Emelin-Weber
Beaulieu- Petry
Barberio-Redmond

Against the Flames, Artturi Lehkonen earned time on the first power play unit with Max Pacioretty centering him and Alexander Radulov. It will be interesting to see if the Canadiens and Kirk Muller stick with that formula or continue to tweak it…

As for the Islanders Thomas Greiss will get the start in net. Former Canadiens Playoff hero Jaroslav Halak has fallen out of grace with the team and was put on waivers at the end of 2016. He now plays for their farm team in the AHL with the Bridgeport Sound Tigers. The Islanders lines will only be known during their warmup as they held an optional skate this morning. It is confirmed though that Anthony Beauvillier will return to the lineup after missing one game.

Puck drops at 7pm.

Cheers and enjoy the game!
Follow @Jenbcutler

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