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Galchenyuk and Shaw return as the Habs host the Rangers |
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The Montreal Canadiens host the New York Rangers tonight at the Bell Centre and they will be getting some much needed reinforcements as Alex Galchenyuk and Andrew Shaw will both return to the lineup. The Canadiens fared better than expected while Galchenyuk was out of the lineup going 9-5-4, collecting 22 out of a possible 36 points. Surprisingly, the team’s offense did not dry up as they averaged 3.28 goals per game without Galchenyuk. However over the last few games, it has become evident that the toll of having to play that much harder without Canadiens key players started to take a toll on the team as mental mistakes began to creep in. The return of Galchenyuk and Shaw should breathe some extra life into the team and it comes at not a moment too soon.
The revised lines for tonight’s game against the Rangers will be:
To no surprise, Galchenyuk has reclaimed his spot as the team’s number one center and will look to recapture the chemistry between himself and linemates Alexander Radulov and Max Pacioretty. Despite missing their centerman, Pacioretty and Radulov stepped up and continued to contribute with Phillip Danault who played above and beyond any expectations. Pacioretty recorded 17 points in the 18 games that Galchenyuk was out of the lineup while Radulov has been hot as of late with nine points in nine games.
Danault now finds himself centering the third line between Andrew Shaw and Paul Byron. It will be difficult to move Danault back to the wing as he has proven to be more valuable down the middle. If Tomas Plekanec had not recently rediscovered his game, Danault would likely be playing on the second line. The pressure is now on Plekanec to continue to perform and contribute offensively, otherwise Danault will be ready to once again step up. Andrighetto will get another chance to prove that he deserves to play each and every night in the NHL by playing alongside Plekanec and the impressive Artturi Lehkonen. He has been much better in his most recent call-up and cannot take his foot off the pedal for even a second. Otherwise Andrighetto will once again find himself on a flight to The Rock.
Carey Price gets the start in goal and will be somewhat surprising if he is unable to bounce back from the 7-1 loss to the Minnesota with a strong performance against the Rangers. Price has enjoyed much success in nets when he has faced the Rangers in the past, sporting a 12-5-1 career record and a .943 save percentage to go along with a sparkling 1.74 goals against average and seven shutouts. If ever there was a perfect storm for Price to have a statement game, tonight would be the night.
Andrei Markov has stopped practicing with the team as head coach Michel Therrien said that the defenseman was not progressing in practice and so has resumed skating by himself. Apparently though, this is not a setback and so fans should not be concerned. As such, the Canadiens defense pairings remain the same and Zach Redmond will play for the second consecutive game. It will be important for Jeff Petry and Nathan Beaulieu to regroup after having struggled together over the past few games.
Along with the return of Galchenyuk and Shaw comes changes to the Canadiens powerplay:
The Canadiens are returning to four forwards on the first powerplay unit, despite Nathan Beaulieu’s strong play on the top pairing with the man advantage. While it is a positive that Kirk Muller is always looking for ways to improve the Canadiens powerplay, perhaps he is being a little hasty in tinkering as the fact is the team has played well as of late and now sit seventh in the league in powerplay rankings.
Brendan Gallagher also spoke with the media this morning for the first time since injuring his hand for a second time. It was indeed the same finger and knuckle that was fractured after getting in the way of Shea Weber’s shot but the surgery was slightly different to repair it as it was not injured in the exact same way as a season ago. He hopes to be back in the lineup 39 days from when his injury occurred which would be a game on March 12th against the Boston Bruins.
As for the Rangers, they are coming off of an emotional 4-2 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Friday night in which they honored Steven McDonald:
The Rangers had led the Metropolitan division for much of the season but now sit fourth with 57 points as they have been leapfrogged by the Columbus Blue Jackets, Washington Capitals and Pittsburgh Penguins. Thus they currently hold the first wild card position and would be the Canadiens opponent in the first round of the playoffs if they postseason started today. The Canadiens continue to lead the Atlantic division with 58 points, nine ahead of the Boston Bruins and so facing a tough team from the Metropolitan division in the first round could very well be the unfortunate reward for finishing first in their division.
Puck drops at 7pm.
Cheers and enjoy the game!
Montreal Canadiens Blogger • 
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