Canadiens Look To Re-establish Culture, Dvorak Out vs Devils

The Montreal Canadiens will play their first game since Jan. 30 when they host the New Jersey Devils at the Bell Centre Tuesday night.

Sitting dead last in the NHL standings and with 38 games left in the regular season, the Montreal Canadiens (8-29-7, 23 pts) understand their situation but also don’t plan on just rolling over for the remainder of the season.

“It’s no real secret where we are in the standings, but you just have to find a way to create a fire in you, internal fuel, and find a way to make every game important and make every game matter,” said forward Paul Byron. “We have a lot of young guys pushing for roster spots, and we have a lot of older guys that want to prove that they’re going to be part of the solution here going forward, so everyone’s got to kind of come together, regroup as a team, and just show some passion, keep playing hard, and finish off the year the right way.”

Montreal Canadiens winger Brendan Gallagher concurred.

“We know where we are and we understand we’re going to lose games but we can’t accept losing,” Gallagher said. “We have to maintain that culture where we’re not OK with that. Win or lose, we need to come away from the rink and the games knowing we left it all out there.”

The Montreal Canadiens were hoping to get center Christian Dvorak back into the lineup Tuesday after he skated in a contact jersey Monday and was cleared to play. However, at the game-day skate Tuesday, Dvorak – along with Rem Pitlick and Michael Pezzetta – was skating in a navy jersey and will not play Tuesday night. That means forward Ryan Poehling will draw into the lineup and will center Joel Armia and Cole Caufield.

Here’s how the Habs should lineup against the Devils on Tuesday:

Forwards

Artturi Lehkonen-Nick Suzuki-Tyler Toffoli

Paul Byron – Jake Evans-Josh Anderson

Mike Hoffman-Laurent Dauphin-Brendan Gallagher

Joel Armia- Ryan Poehling -Cole Caufield

Defense:

Alexander Romanov-Ben Chiarot

Brett Kulak-Jeff Petry

Kale Clague-Chris Wideman

Goalies:

Sam Montembeault

Cayden Primeau