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A Change of Pace and Drouin Out Long Term |
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Going from facing the Flames who play a very tight game to taking on the Leafs will be a welcome change for the Habs. While the Toronto outfit is the number one team in the North division and could book its place in the playoffs tonight if they win in regulation (and the Sens win in regulation), their style of hockey suits the Habs much better than Calgary’s one.
This doesn’t mean that it will be easier to play the Leafs mind you, they have an impressive attack, but there will be more space on the ice. So far this year, the Habs are 2-3-1 against the boys in blue and have been outscored 20-17. Most of the games have been entertaining contests with both teams competing hard. That’s the same type of game we can expect tonight.
As for the line-up, it will greatly depend of how the injured players have progressed. We already know that Carey Price will not be in the line-up, and Jake Allen will be the starting goaltender. We also know that Jonathan Drouin has been placed on long term injured reserved and will be away from the team for personal reasons, and while this eases the cap crunch the Habs are dealing with, it is worrying about Drouin himself.
One of Caufield or Evans will get to remain in the line-up as an emergency recall to fill in for Drouin and the decision will not have to be motivated by money considering the relief provided by putting Drouin’s $5.5 M cap hit on LTIR. At this morning’s practice, both Tatar and Byron were absent this morning and the lines were as follows:
Lehkonen-Danault-Anderson
Toffoli-Suzuki-Caufield
Perry-Kotkaniemi-Armia
Frolik-Staal-Evans
Clearly, Ducharme doesn’t want to expose Caufield to the Maple Leafs’ top line which makes sense. We’ll get to see how he can link up with Suzuki, that alone should make the game interesting. On D, Romanov draws back in the top 6 at the expenses of Merrill. Seems like the team will use its last recall on the young blueliner then.
While Drouin has receive his fair share of criticism lately, including from me, I wish him the best and I hope his leave of absence is nothing too serious. The puck drops at 8:00 PM tonight and hoefully, the Habs have a good game in store for us.
Montreal Canadiens Blogger • 
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