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Beaulieu out for tonight's game. Habs vs Hurricanes game preview & 5 Q's

November 24, 2016, 9:46 AM ET [23 Comments]
Jennifer B Cutler
Montreal Canadiens Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
The Montreal Canadiens returned defenseman Joel Hanley back to the St. John’s Ice Caps on Wednesday morning and recalled Mark Barberio to take his place. The writing seemed to be on the wall for Hanley as he could not even play past eight minutes in the Montreal Canadiens 4-3 loss to the Ottawa Senators once Nathan Beaulieu got hit in thé throat by a puck and had to leave the game. Down to five defensemen for nearly half the game, it should have been the perfect opportunity for Hanley to show the coaches that he can step up and contribute. Instead, he will be back to riding the buses in the AHL while Barberio will try to re-establish himself as an NHL player. With the Ice Caps this season, Barberio collected 11 points in 14 games. However, he remained inconsistent in his own end. He has to take advantage of this chance to prove that he is capable of playing regularly in the NHL. Otherwise, Zach Redmond will soon be ready to take his place.


Beaulieu will not play Thursday night against the Carolina Hurricanes and is considered doubtful for Saturday night’s game as well as the Canadiens await further results from the various test that he took on Wednesday. While Beaulieu’s level of play may have stumbled over the last five or so games, the Canadiens lack of defensive depth becomes even more apparent without him in the lineup. Despite playing for much of the season on the Canadiens third defensive unit, Beaulieu has still been averaging 17:09 minutes of ice time per game. He is used on the second wave of the power play and will penalty kill if one of the top four is the one in the box. Without him, the likelihood is that Barberio and Greg Pateryn play only 10-15 minutes a game forcing the Canadiens top four to step up and play even more.


Rather than continue to pace themselves with the end goal of playing well into the Spring, the team has little choice now but to rely on Shea Weber, Andrei Markov, Jeff Petry and Alexei Emelin. The usually reliable Petry had his poorest performance of the season on Tuesday night, especially when on with Hanley. Markov played over 30 minutes against the Senators on Tuesday night, an anomaly this season as he had been averaging closer to 21:30 minutes instead. Nearly nine of those minutes were on the powerplay though and so one could say that the full 30+ minutes were not quite taxing. Markov was the Canadiens best defenseman against the Senators recording three assists but there is cause for concern for how often a night like that will be asked of Markov, especially as the Canadiens prepare to embark out west on a long road trip.


The Canadiens will be looking for redemption tonight as they take on the Hurricanes for the second time in a week. Despite outplaying them for much of the game, the Canadiens learned the hard way that you cannot take your foot of the gas for a second as the Hurricanes took advantage of some sloppy third period play to win the game. The Hurricanes are now one of the hottest teams in hockey having won five in a row and are 6-2-2 in their last ten. This time though they will be facing Carey Price in net who will be looking to have a bounce back game after letting in an uncharacteristic four goals in regulation against the Senators. Alexander Radulov will also be back in the lineup as he did not make the trip to Carolina last week. He and Alex Galchenyuk have formed one of the most dangerous duos in the NHL and the Canadiens are a different team with him in the lineup. Charles Hudon will replace Daniel Carr in the lineup this evening as the team continues to search for additional scoring.


Five questions for tonight's game:


1) Will The Hurricanes get to Carey Price or will he rebound with a strong performance?


2) Will Barberio and Pateryn play more or less than 13 minutes tonight?


3) The Canadiens power play has skyrocketed up to fourth in the rankings. Are they for real or will they come back to earth?


4) The Canadiens have been a one line team lately with additional scoring from the defense, or namely Shea Weber. Will another line step up and score tonight?


5) Can the Canadiens snap the Hurricanes win streak? What will be the final score?


Puck drops at 7:30pm.


Cheers & follow along!
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