First things first, an update on Carey Price courtesy of Claude Julien who had this to say after the morning skate:
Claude Julien shares an update on Carey Price's status. #GoHabsGo pic.twitter.com/sMaTkVS8dh
— Canadiens Montréal (@CanadiensMTL) December 28, 2018
The head coach mentions that the injury has been nagging Price for a couple of weeks now and they'll just have to wait and see. While some may wonder why he would just try and play through it, anyone who's had knee injuries will tell you that you can play on a sprained ligament until you can't anymore...and hockey players are not soccer players, they do not go down easy. I'm aware that some disliked my last post and the speculation about the injury but, unfortunately, if it's been there for two weeks, chances are it was during the game against the Senators.
Now for the good news, both Shaw and Gallagher were at the morning skate even if they did miss yesterday's practice and the lines and pairings were as follows:
Drouin - Domi - Byron Tatar - Danault - Gallagher Lehkonen - Kotkaniemi - Shaw Agostino - Chaput - Deslauriers Armia, Hudon, Peca
Mete - Weber Reilly - Petry Kulak - Benn Alzner
Niemi McNiven
Looks like Byron will remain on the top line which he does deserve given his performances while Peca and Hudon are healthy scratch and Armia is not quite game ready yet. As for the defence, Karl Alzner might have been called-up from Laval but he won't see any action tonight.
Tonight will mark the start of the last 3 game road trip of 2018 for the Habs which will see them battle two divisional rivals in Florida and Tampa before heading out to Texas to take on the Stars. The Panters currently have 36 points compared to the Habs' 43 but they still have 2 games in hand. The last time the 2 teams met in the preseason, the Panthers won 5-2 but that's not why the game was remembered. It was Max Domi's first match as a Montreal Canadiens and it was a short one since he was ejected after punching Aaron Ekblad:
Niemi will no doubt get the start tonight and Michael McNiven will be his back-up. While Niemi did have a great couple of season with the Habs as a back-up, he is somewhat struggling this season with a save percentage of .876 and a goal against average of 4.14. Should Price be out long term, the Habs' hopes of making the playoffs may melt faster than anyone thought...
On a side note, Price didn't receive only bad news lately since his second daughter, Millie, was born last night according to Angela Price's Instagram.
Puck drop is scheduled for 7.00 PM tonight, it will be good to finally see the Habs in action again!