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Montoya gets the start as the Habs take on the Blues

December 6, 2016, 1:39 PM ET [10 Comments]
Jennifer B Cutler
Montreal Canadiens Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
The Montreal Canadiens will conclude their five game road trip Tuesday night in St. Louis as they take on the Blues at the Scottrade Center. Competing against the Blues was already going to be a difficult task as they sit second in the Central division with 32 points and are excellent at home with an 11-1-3 record. The Blues are also a strong 7-2-1 in their last ten games while the Canadiens have been unable to be consistent sporting a 4-5-1 in their last ten. Tonight though, the Canadiens task will be that much harder as they will be without the services of Alex Galchenyuk who is out indefinitely.


It will be quite the rest of adversity for the Canadiens as they must look to find alternate ways to generate offense without their number one center. It is still unknown how long Galchenyuk will be out for. It could be as little as 7-10 days or it could be Habs fans worst fears and he will be out for an extended amount of time. If it is the former, the Canadiens can survive if Tomas Plekanec and David Desharnais step up in the short term. With Carey Price in net, the Canadiens always have a chance at winning.


However if Galchenyuk is out long term, then Canadiens general manager Marc Bergevin must look for outside help via trade to tide the team over. Unfortunately, there is no one in the Canadiens prospect pipeline that is ready to step up into the first line center position. Perhaps Charles Hudon could have had an opportunity but he has not played center for some time now and is out with a fractured sternum. Michael McCarron is a second line center at best but he cannot carry the puck to drive the offense. Rookie Daniel Audette is the most offensively talented center in St-John’s with the Ice Caps right now but he is not ready to take on such a big responsibility. For the Canadiens to succeed without Galchenyuk in the lineup, the team will need to bear down and play stronger defensively so that they can win those tight low scoring games. The power play will become even more important as they will likely need it to come up big to win games.


At the gameday skate, Therrien chose not to reveal the trios for tonight's match. It appears that Price will get a well-deserved day off as Al Montoya will get the start against the Blues.






The Canadiens did work on the power play though and the units will be:






To no one’s surprise, Desharnais will replace Galchenyuk on the first power play wave. While he has been inconsistent this season, he is out producing Tomas Plekanec. Andrei Markov rejoins the unit as well as the Canadiens no longer have the depth to go four forwards on the with the man advantage. Mark Barberio will get his first opportunity in quite some time to show that he can contribute on the second powerplay wave while Plekanec continues to be bumped from the offensive depth chart as Andrew Shaw will center Artturi Lehkonen and Brendan Gallagher. That will be a gritty and aggressive second wave but the level of creativity will be lower than the first without a designated setup man.


Interestingly Stu Cowan of the Montreal Gazette caught Lehkonen practicing faceoffs along with Phillip Danault.






Lehkonen does have some prior experience playing center but it has been quite some time since he has done so. Apparently, the Blues believe that the Canadiens lines will look like:






It is entirely possible that this will be the lines but it is odd that Danault would play on the second line in place of Lehkonen who has been excellent since his return from injury. On the other hand I am not adverse of seeing a line of Lehkonen-Shaw-Daniel Carr as it has some potential as well.


The Blues lineup for the game should be:


Forwards

Robby Fabbri - Paul Stastny - David Perron
Jaden Schwartz - Alexander Steen - Vladimir Tarasenko
Jori Lehtera - Patrik Berglund - Dmitrij Jaskin
Scottie Upshall - Kyle Brodziak - Ryan Reaves

Defense

Jay Bouwmeester - Alex Pietrangelo
Carl Gunnarsson - Kevin Shattenkirk
Joel Edmundson - Colton Parayko

Goalie

Jake Allen


It looks like Nail Yakupov will be a healthy scratch for the ninth time this season. Of note, the Blues have also had weaknesses at center this season and have put Jori Lehtera on the wing in an effort to get him going while Alexander has been asked to play center.


Five questions for tonight’s game:


1) Will Desharnais finish the game still centering the top line? I would not be surprised if Shaw gets an opportunity if he continues his strong play as of late as Pacioretty and Radulov could use some net presence on their line.


2) Will the powerplay suffer without Galchenyuk or is Shea Weber the most important skater that the Canadiens cannot afford to lose?


3) Can the Canadiens give Montoya the proper defensive support he deserves?


4) How will Barberio perform with the man advantage? How much longer until the Canadiens give Zach Redmond an opportunity?


5) What will be the final score of the game?


Cheers and follow along!
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