The World Junior Championship is history and the Habs are getting ready to face the Winnipeg Jets tonight. All eyes were on the Complexe Sportif Bell this morning to see who Kovalchuk would play with and turns out that for now, he'll fill in for Gallagher on the first line as this is what was on display on the ice:
Tatar - Danault - Kovalchuk Lehkonen - Domi - Suzuki Poehling - Kotkaniemi - Cousins Weise - Thompson - Weal Vejdemo - Peca
Chiarot - Weber Scandella - Petry Mete - Fleury Kulak
Price Lindgren
Nouveaux compagnons de trio. 💪
— Canadiens Montréal (@CanadiensMTL) January 6, 2020
New linemates.#GoHabsGo pic.twitter.com/gZ2IiNNOS7
This at least removes Nick Cousins from the first line and you might have also noticed that Scandella is now practising alongside Jeff Petry. As for the power play lines, Marc Antoine Godin reports them as follows:
Avantage numérique
— Marc Antoine Godin (@MAGodin) January 6, 2020
PP1:
Suzuki-Tatar-Danault-Cousins-Petry
PP2:
Kovalcuk-Weal-Kotkaniemi-Domi-Weber
In a season that is pretty much already lost, I'll admit that seeing how this Kovalchuk move pans out will make it mildly more interesting. Unsurprisingly, none claimed Christian Polin cleared waivers and was assigned to the Rocket.
On the bright side of things though, Alexander Romanov impressed once again at the World Junior Championship and was named to the All-Star team as Russia received the silver medal yesterday after losing 4-3 to Canada. As for Mattias Norlinder, he received the bronze medal with Sweden even though he definitely wasn't one of their main player.