The Montreal Canadiens will relish their role of spoilers tonight against the Florida Panthers who are caught in a tight battle for first place in the Atlantic Division against the Tampa Bay Lightning. With Mike Condon earning his first career shutout against a Lightning team that, let’s be honest, hardly showed up to play in a 3-0 loss, the Panthers will look to seize the opportunity to do some damage.
The Habs will be without Nathan Beaulieu for the remainder of an absolutely unlucky season for the young defenseman who suffered yet another injury by breaking his thumb on Thursday night. It seems like he can’t catch a break this season, and is slowly starting to look fragile as he’ll miss a total of 18 games due to ailments. The organization proceeded to recall Brett Lernout from St. John’s Ice Caps and the 6’4… right-handed 20-year-old will play in his first-ever NHL game tonight.
Up front, the Habs will count on Brendan Gallagher’s return to the lineup after missing the last 12 games with a lower-body injury and Daniel Carr, who impressed me quite a lot through the month of December, will be reinserted into the lineup after missing 29 games with a similar injury to Gallagher’s. The latter is pumped, and will look to have an impact over the course of the last 4 games by playing alongside Max Pacioretty and Alex Galchenyuk:
"With four games left, there's still time to play some good hockey and contribute." -> https://t.co/P22GSeGzas pic.twitter.com/tYvMM8pK6l
— Canadiens Montréal (@CanadiensMTL) April 1, 2016
While we still don’t know if Carey Price is set to play in any of the remaining matches, the good news is he has practiced with his teammates for the first time since hurting himself on November 25th 2015.
Check out @CP0031's first full practice back with the boys! WATCH-> https://t.co/Y3WRYcDFhe #GoHabsGo pic.twitter.com/1RDm9FSo9B
— Canadiens Montréal (@CanadiensMTL) March 31, 2016
Finally, I’d like to mention that despite my agreeing with most fans and analysts regarding David Desharnais’ role on this team, he has looked surprisingly good and has put up a few points since his return from injury last week. I’d still like to see him leave the team this summer, but it might be worthwhile to keep him around for the final year of his contract and stick him on the third line. He has proven that he can contribute offensively if he’s well-surrounded, and I doubt there will be any takers during the offseason.