The Montreal Canadiens will look to start another win streak tonight. The Habs are coming off a loss to the Carolina Hurricanes, who stopped Montreal at four straight wins. The Canadiens sit 12th in the East and are seven points out of a playoff spot. The Habs host the enemy tonight in the Boston Bruins who are coming off a 3-0 loss last night to the New York Rangers.
The Bruins have won their last three games against the Canadiens. Another Montreal loss will make the mountain that much more difficult to climb. No doubt Claude Julien's Bruins would love nothing more than to hurt Montreal's playoff chances just like Kirk Muller's Hurricanes did last game.
The past couple of days have been intense in Montreal. Yesterday, assistant coach Randy Ladouceur wasn't happy with Scott Gomez who got a drill wrong at practice. A heated exchange ensued. The Habs #11 and his teammates said it's common for coaches to raise the tone when guys aren't practicing properly. Earlier today, Andrei Kostitsyn was asked about his lack of ice time in the last game. The Habs winger said he no longer wants to freeze sitting on the bench. He added that if his ice time does not increase he will request a trade.
When asked about Gomez and Kostitsyn, head coach Randy Cunneyworth said he doesn't care how much a player is paid. Cunneyworth said if a player isn't playing the right way he will sit on the bench. All indications are that Gomez and Kostitsyn will be given the opportunity to show what they can do tonight. The two will likely form a line with Ryan White, who will play his first game of the season. Coach Cunneyworth says there is a chance the Habs will go with 12 forwards tonight. That decision will be made right after the pre-game warmup.
Bruins Projected lineup:
Brad Marchand-Patrice Bergeron-Tyler Seguin
Milan Lucic-Chris Kelly-Rich Peverley
Benoit Pouliot-David Krejci-Jordan Caron
Daniel Paille-Gregory Campbell-Shawn Thornton
Zdeno Chara-Johnny Boychuk
Dennis Seidenberg-Joe Corvo
Andrew Ference-Adam McQuaid
Canadiens Projected lineup:
Max Pacioretty-David Desharnais-Erik Cole
Rene Bourque-Tomas Plekanec-Mathieu Darche
Aaron Palushaj-Lars Eller-Louis Leblanc
Andrei Kostitsyn-Scott Gomez-Ryan White
Josh Gorges-PK Subban
Hal Gill-Raphael Diaz
Tomas Kaberle-Alexei Emelin
The starting goaltenders are Tuukka Rask for Boston and Carey Price for Montreal. Habs-Bruins Gametime is 7:30pm.
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