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Tonight’s game at the Bell Centre will be a battle of the depleted rosters, the Habs are without Carey Price, Shea Weber, Paul Byron, Mathieu Perreault and Joel Edmundson while the Knights are without Max Pacioretty, Mark Stone, Nolan Patrick, Zack Withecloud, William Karlson and of course, brand new acquisition, first line center Jack Eichel.
Vegas comes to town with a .500 record and their current points leader is Chandler Stephenson and unless some of their injured players come back tonight, the main threats on their attack will be Stephenson and Jonathan Marchesseault.
As for the Habs, Nick Suzuki, Jonathan Drouin and Brendan Gallagher are all game time decisions. Both Gallagher and Suzuki skipped practice yesterday to receive treatment and Drouin is still recuperating after taking a Brett Kulak shot to the head. Ducharme is confident they will play but couldn’t confirm it. Cedric Paquette’s suspension is over so he should be back in the line-up, so that’s one able bodied player. In net, after having the 3rd period of Thursday’s massacre off, Jake Allen will be back.
The Canadiens have also announced this morning that Carey Price’s after-care process within the NHLPA Players Assistance Program involves privacy for him and his family. He will not make any public statements or talk to the media until tending physicians deem it appropriate.
As always (or almost), the puck drops at 7:00 PM and the Canadiens do have a chance to win, after all they lost the last game so there’s no chance of a winning streak.