The Monteal Canadiens will host the San Jose Sharks Friday night at the Bell Centre as they attempt to reverse their fortunes from the two teams previous meeting on December 2nd, a 2-1 Sharks win in California. The Canadiens can feel a little more confident about the possibility of defeating the Sharks at home where they sport a sparkling 14-1-2 record. The team though may have some rust to shake off though as they have been idle since the Boston Bruins defeated them 2-1 in overtime Monday night. Meanwhile the Sharks are coming into town having won three consecutive games in a row, the most recent being a 4-3 shootout win over the Ottawa Senators.
Despite having only played each other two weeks ago, the Canadiens will appear to be a very different team to the Sharks this time around. Alex Galchenyuk, David Desharnais and Greg Pateryn are all now on the injured reserve while Mark Barberio is the team’s seventh defenseman. Phillip Danault and Brian Flynn are now the team’s second and fourth line centers while Nathan Beaulieu and Zach Redmond have established as a very strong third pairing in the back end. It also appears as though Michael McCarron is likely to get into his first NHL game of the season as the lines at practice on Thursday were:
#Habs practice lines:
— John Lu (@JohnLuTSNMtl) December 15, 2016
Pacioretty - Plekanec - Radulov
Lehkonen - Danault - Shaw
Byron - Mitchell - Gallagher
Carr-Flynn-McCarron
Andrighetto
While the fourth line of Flynn, Daniel Carr and Sven Andrighetto performed well against the New Jersey Devils and Colorado Avalanche last week, they were not nearly as effective against stronger competition such as the Bruins. McCarron can bring an added dimension of size and grit to the line that should certainly match up well against the Sharks. Head coach Michel Therrien would not confirm the lineup change on Thursday. He did announce though that as expected Carey Price would get the start in net on Friday while Al Montoya will start against the Capitals in Washington D.C. on Saturday night.
For the most part, the Canadiens have been playing quite well at even strength over the last couple of weeks but have had quite the struggle with the man advantage. The loss of Galchenyuk has hurt perhaps harder than expected on the power play as the Canadiens are missing his ability to carry the puck and enter their opponent’s zone, not to mention how defences must respect his shot and vision. When it rains it also pours though as the powerplay’s difficulties is also linked to Shea Weber not recording a power play point in the last nine games as his shot has been taken away. Unsurprisingly, the Canadiens worked hard on the powerplay at Thursday’s practice with new units as they try to right the ship:
#Habs power play units:
— John Lu (@JohnLuTSNMtl) December 15, 2016
Pacioretty- Shaw - Radulov
Weber - Petry
Byron - Lehkonen - Gallagher
Markov - Beaulieu
The biggest change has Jeff Petry getting promoted to the top unit while Andrei Markov falls to the second unit to play alongside Beaulieu. The power plays now feature units of two righties and two lefties at the point. Theoretically, the passing should be quicker allowing for Weber to blast his bullets on net. It also limits Markov’s minutes, something that the Canadiens have been conscious of for the most part this season. Up front Arturri Lehkonen will play center for the first time in the NHL on the second unit. He has played the position before in Europe but is has not been for awhile. However, it appears that the coaching staff have been preparing him for this moment and possibility as he has been practising faceoffs since Galchenyuk and Desharnais went down. I would expect though for Gallagher to take most of the draws on the right side as he used to do when he play next to Alex Galchenyuk.
The Sharks had the day off on Thursday. The Canadiens held an optional game day skate Friday morning and Therrien said that McCarron's place in the lineup would be a gametime decision. As previously announced, Carey Price will start in goal for the Canadiens. Martin Jones gets the nod for the Sharks.
For the Sharks, their projected lines are:
Marleau - Thornton - Pavelski Boedker - Couture - Labanc Meier - Tierney - Donskoi Karlsson - Wingels - Haley
Rookie Timo Meier, the Sharks 2015 first round draft pick will be making his NHL debut while veteran Joel Ward is a healthy scratch. Ward has only one goal in his last 28 games and nine points on the season. He was considered one of the prize acquisitions of the 2015 free agency frenzy and he did contribute last year with 21 goals in the regular season and 13 points during the Sharks run in the Stanley Cup playoffs.
Five questions for tonight's game:
1) Players always seem to do well for whatever reason when they make their NHL debuts at the Bell Centre. Do you expect Meier to continue with that trend and record his first NHL point tonight?
2) Who will get in the lineup tonight, McCarron or Sven Andrighetto?
3) Will the Canadiens new power play units be successful?
4) Which line will step for the Canadiens tonight?
5) What will be the final score?
Cheers and follow along! Follow @Jenbcutler