Happy thanksgiving weekend to our southern neighbours and thanks for the very early start of the Habs vs Sabres match-up at 16:00 this afternoon in Buffalo.
As previously said, Antti Niemi will man the nets for the Canadiens tonight and hopefully he'll be wanting to make up for his less than stellar display in Edmonton when he was on the receiving end of a 6-2 beating. The task could prove to be hard however since the Sabres have won 7 games in a row and have a 14-6-2 records and are only one point away from the division leading Lightning.
Jack Eichel (25 points) and Jeff Skinner (23 points) are the Sabres' leading offensive weapons, to have any chance of beating them, the Habs defence will have to perform much better than it has been later. Speaking of the defence, the Canadiens announced that Brett Kulak was recalled from Laval and that he would join the team in Buffalo. It therefore stands to reason that he should be in the line-up tonight, otherwise he would have stayed in Montreal.
The Canadiens have recalled defenseman Brett Kulak from the AHL’s Laval Rocket. He will join the team tonight in Buffalo.
— Canadiens Montréal (@CanadiensMTL) November 22, 2018
DETAILS âž¡ https://t.co/huqww5gK6x#GoHabsGo
Xavier Ouellet and David "What on earth am I doing on the power play" Schlemko both had a terrible game against the Devils and could be prime candidate to sit on the press gallery and enjoy the Buffalo cuisine.
Claude Julien also said yesterday that barring any issues, there's a really good chance that Shea Weber would be making his season debut on Tuesday Novembre 27th. Bergevin had said that he would be back before the end of the year and it does seem like the Man mountain, as Mike Babcock nicknamed him, is ahead of schedule. I believe that after yesterday's post practice media opportunity, it's quite clear who's missed the captain the most:
"I've missed the look of that big guy mugging guys in front of me." -Carey Price on Shea Weber #GoHabsGo pic.twitter.com/h5mk4sWjZJ
— Canadiens Montréal (@CanadiensMTL) November 22, 2018
At one point, the Habs were positively awful in afternoon games but last year, they managed to gather 5 of the 6 points up for grabs. We might just have stumbled upon the only positive thing about last season.
Yesterday's lines at practice were as follows:
Drouin - Domi - Shaw Tatar - Danault - Gallagher Hudon - Kotkaniemi - Lehkonen Agostino - Chaput - Deslauriers Peca
Benn - Petry Ouellet - Reilly Schlemko - Mete Alzner - Weber
Niemi
We should know closer to game time who will make way from Brett Kulak. Until then, have a good Friday everyone!
Edit: Hudon will make way for Peca and Kulak and Alzner take over for Ouellet and Reilly...