The Canadiens will be playing the Los Angeles Kings tomorrow night and there are a few things to report from practice today. Firstly, Carey Price was not there...the team confirmed that he stayed at the hotel battling a virus. After Drouin and Byron, it's now Price's turn to be sick but it couldn't have come at a worst moment. Every point is now vital for the Canadiens and should this virus hit him hard, he may not be able to handle the workload this week. We'll know tomorrow if Price will be able to man the net against the Kings when he's re-evaluated.After the lost against Pittsburgh, the Tricolore's odds of making the spring dance are now down to 65.4%, while Pittsburgh's stand at 84%, the Hurricanes' at 86.4% and the Columbus Blue Jackets' at 54.4 % according to hockey-reference.com:
Secondly, they were some changes lines wise today. Should Julien stick with what was on display at practice, this is what the Habs would look like against LA:
Tatar - Danault - Gallagher
Byron - Domi - Shaw
Drouin - Kotkaniemi - Armia
Lehkonen - Thompson - Weise
Extras: Hudon - Deslauriers - Peca - Weal
Mete - Weber
Benn - Petry
Kulak - Folin
Extra: Reilly
I'm not worried about seeing Byron on the 2nd line, he's showed time and time again that he can pretty much fit in wherever you need him to. His speed is a great quality and with Domi's ability to feed the puck at the right time in the right place, this could be an interesting combination to say the least. Byron on the 2nd means Drouin on the 3rd however and it will be interesting to see how he handles that. In the media scrum after practice he said that he was looking forward to playing with Kotkaniemi and that they had their chances when they played together in the preseason but that the puck just wouldn't go in...To say that now would be a good time for pucks to go in would be the understatement of the year. As for Claude Julien, he was adamant that people should not see this as a demotion for Drouin but just as a way to spark offense through change because change is clearly needed.
There was no change on the blue line, meaning that Mike Reilly should again be the healthy scratch tomorrow. That also means that Jordie Benn will once more be on the second pairing which is not ideal for him, try as he might, Benn is better used in moderation. However, it's not like the Habs have many other choices...That being said, improving the blue line should really be at the top of Marc Bergevin's priority list.
Not a very busy night around the NHL today, only 2 games on schedule and neither of them have any playoffs implications for the Canadiens. Tomorrow though, the Canes will be taking on Boston, the Blue Jackets will visit the Devils and the Panthers will be in Pittsburgh...needless to say that the playoffs picture could change depending on how those match-ups end. Hopefully, the Devils and Panthers do to our competition what they did to us not long ago, win when they shouldn't.
Finally, the hockey world was shaken today when it was announced that Ted Lindsay had passed. Marc Bergevin probably summed it up best when he said that losing Lindsay was for the Wings what losing Jean Beliveau had been for the Canadiens. Lindsay was a great player and an even better man, he ranks 9th in points in Detroit's history with 728 and has won 4 Stanley cups. It's also important to mention that he was one of the instigator of the players association and that the Ted Lindsay foundation founded in 2001 has raised 1.5 M to further research on autism.
Montreal Canadiens Blogger • 
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