The Montreal Canadiens will try to build off of their recent dominant 5-2 win over the New Jersey Devils as they prepare to host the Colorado Avalanche Saturday night at the Bell Centre. For the past few seasons fans have circled the date of the annual Avalanche visit as now former Head Coach Patrick Roy always brought a certain level of excitement with him and for some he was worth the price of admission alone. That notion was reinforced by the Canadiens marketing department making the Avalanche games one of its optimum, higher priced games at the Bell Centre. This year though the Avalanche are coming into town on a much quieter note. They have greatly struggled as they sit last in the Central division with 21 points and are 29th overall in the NHL. Interestingly, the Avalanche have played better on the road with a 6-6-1 record than at home where they are 4-8-1. However, the Canadiens cannot afford to take the Avalanche lightly as they are coming into town on somewhat of a high having snapped a six game losing streak with a 4-2 win over the Boston Bruins this past Thursday.
The Avalanche’s forward lines should look like:
Trios des #Avs lines:
— Jonathan Bernier (@JBernierJDM) December 9, 2016
Bourque-MacKinnon-Comeau
Grigorenko-Soderberg-Landeskog
Duchene-Mitchell-Rantanen
Iginla-Colborne-Martinsen#CH #habs
And yes, that is former Canadiens forward Rene Bourque on the first line with Nathan MacKinnon and Blake Comeau. He has eight goals and three assists on the season, proving that he still has the skills to play in the NHL. Interestingly, all ten of Matt Duchene’s goals have all come on the road this season which likely plays a large part towards the Avalanche playing better away from home. Their Gabriel Landeskog will make his return to the lineup Saturday night having missed the last ten games due to injury. Calvin Pickard will get the nod in goal and make his second consecutive start.
As for the Canadiens, anything less than the same compete effort that the team exhibited on Thursday night would be a let down. The Canadiens are certainly not going to win every game without Alex Galchenyuk but if they are able to give the same level of compete night in and night out, the team will certainly win its fair share of games. Plus, anytime that Carey Price is in net the Canadiens always have a chance at winning. It will be interesting to see if the Avalanche forwards took note and will be a little more careful around Price’s crease, not wanting to be on the receiving side of his temper. As expected, the Canadiens did call up extra bodies from St. John’s following their 6-5 victory last night.
Canadiens have recalled forward Michael McCarron and defenseman Mark Barberio from the AHL St. John's IceCaps tonight.
— Canadiens Montréal (@CanadiensMTL) December 10, 2016
It will be extremely doubtful if either player gets in the lineup this evening, especially as head coach Michel Therrien rarely tinkers with a winning lineup, especially after such a good game. However, I would expect Michael McCarron to get into a game sooner rather than later and for Sven Andrighetto to become the 13th forward. A fourth line of McCarron, Brian Flynn and Daniel Carr would be much tougher for teams to play against...
Five questions for tonight’s game:
1) Which Rene Bourque will show up against the Canadiens?
2) Which Canadiens line will step up and lead the way offense against the Avalanche?
3) Shea Weber is without a point in his last five games. Will he be able to jumpstart the Canadiens power play and connect again?
4) Knowing now that Max Pacioretty was playing through a broken foot injury throughout November, are you more inclined to give him some slack considering how he has turned it around in December?
5) Will tonight’s game be a high scoring affair or low? What will be the final score?
Finally, there are still some tickets left if you want to head to the Bell Centre this afternoon to catch Les Canadiennes de Montreal taking on the Calgary Inferno! Tickets are only $15 and this is an awesome opportunity to catch the top two team of the CWHL and a good number of Olympians there. Come support women's hockey, even when it's not the Olympics!
Cheers & follow along! Follow @Jenbcutler