The Montreal Canadiens return to game action on Wednesday evening as they continue their road trip and visit the Tampa Bay Lightning. The Canadiens hold a nine point lead over their division rivals who are currently outside of the playoffs as the Lightning sit three behind the Boston Bruins for the final spot. It has been a difficult season for the Lightning as they have had to struggle through injuries to multiple key players. Before the holiday break, the Lightning were without the services of Steven Stamkos, Ryan Callahan, Ben Bishop, Nikita Kucherov, Ondrej Palat, Cedric Paquette while Jonathan Drouin and Braydon Coburn left their final pre-Christmas game with minor injuries. Santa Claus was kind to the Lightning as many of the Lightning’s injured will return to the lineup tonight while Drouin and Coburn will not have to miss any time:
So sans Paquette, here are lines:
— Erik Erlendsson (@Erik_Erlendsson) December 27, 2016
Palat-Johnson-Kucherov
Boyle-Filppula-Drouin
Killorn-Point-Namestnikov
Bournival-Brown-Nesterov
The Lightning will be motivated to take down the division leading Canadiens, especially with so many regulars back in the lineup. It is also a big game for former Canadiens Michael Bournival who was signed by the Lightning in the Summertime. After suffering multiple injuries and concussions, the Canadiens cut ties with the forward as there were doubts as to if he would be able to even resume playing hockey. It was certainly a feel good moment last Thursday against the Blues when he scored his first NHL goal since February 24th of 2015.
The Canadiens will welcome Alexei Emelin back into the lineup having missed the last two games to welcome and spend time with his new baby girl. Unfortunately, Andrei Markov will not accompany the team on the current road trip as he continues to recover from a lower body injury. However, the good news is that Alex Galchenyuk and David Desharnais are on their road to recovery as they began skating again:
Updates: Galchenyuk and Desharnais skated for the 1st time today. Markov (groin) not with the team. Shaw continuing his rehab in Brossard.
— Canadiens Montréal (@CanadiensMTL) December 27, 2016
The Canadiens have recalled defenceman Ryan Johnston from the St. John’s Ice Caps as they need an extra body on the backend for their road trip. Carey Price will start against the Lightning while Al Montoya will face his former team, the Florida Panthers tomorrow night. Emelin will rejoin Shea Weber on the top defensive unit while Nathan Beaulieu drops down to form what should be a formidable second pairing with Jeff Petry. However, Beaulieu will play with Weber on the Canadiens top power play unit, a reward for his strong play as of late. The lines at practice on Tuesday were:
Pacioretty/Danault/Gallagher
— Dan Robertson (@DRTSN690) December 27, 2016
Byron/Mitchell/Radulov
Lehkonen/Plek/Flynn
Carr/McCarron/'Ghetto
Emelin/Weber
Beaulieu/Petry
Barberio/Redmond
Alexander Radulov has dropped to the second line as Brendan Gallagher takes his place on top. Radulov has been guilty of trying to do too much lately and while it is always better to have a player that cares that much, he needs to dial it back a little and trust his linemates. It may be difficult for him to do though with Torrey Mitchell as his center and that is not intended as a slight to Mitchell. Radulov needs a offensively minded center to work with and is missing Galchenyuk perhaps more than anticipated...
The puck drops at 7:30pm in Tampa Bay.
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In World Junior action, Mikhail Sergachev scored against Canada in Russia’s first game of the tournament but was held off the scoresheet in his team’s 9-1 win over Latvia on Tuesday. Noah Juulsen has not recorded a point yet for Canada but he has played steady and strong defence and has delivered a few bone crunching hits.
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