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Canadiens Practice Report

Canadiens Practice Notes: Lineup Changes May Be Coming

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1 month ago

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Montreal Canadiens coach St-Louis

The Montreal Canadiens are off to a very good start to the season, all things considered.

They’re currently third in the Atlantic Division with a 5-2-2 record and have pushed teams like the Stanley Cup Champion Vegas Golden Knights to the limit.

Truth be told, they’re probably a little lucky to have already registered 12 points. Goaltender Jake Allen has been dominant, as evidenced by his .930 save percentage.

The team’s underlying numbers have suffered greatly since losing Dach in the second game of the season. It’s to be expected, and not only because Dach is a key player in the lineup.

The Habs aren’t quite ready to compete for the playoffs, which explains why their share of shots and high-danger scoring chances quickly fell below 50 percent in the last few games.

Montreal Canadiens Practice Changes

With that in mind, it appears as if there may be some changes in the lineup ahead of Thursday night’s matchup with the Arizona Coyotes.

Jordan Harris practiced as the team’s seventh defenceman, which could indicate a return to play for defender Gustav Lindstrom, who has looked much better when playing in the NHL compared to his results in the AHL.

Lindstrom was paired with truculent defenceman Arber Xhekaj at practice.

As for the forwards, despite doing fairly well in limited ice time, forward Michael Pezzetta was the odd man out during line rushes. Jesse Ylonen took his place on the fourth line.

The remainder of the lines were unchanged, which means we’re likely to see Josh Anderson, Alex Newhook, and Juraj Slafkovsky together on the second line, a combination that has struggled to produce anything sembling sustained offence.

Fortunately, the top line, which features Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield, and Rafael Harvey-Pinard, has been excellent of late.

There’s no word yet as to which of the three goaltenders on the roster will be given the net against the Coyotes, but don’t be surprised if Cayden Primeau is given his second start of the season.

 

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Peter

Montreal has an above .500 record with Monahan in the line-up, so as long he doesn’t get injured the Habs will do much better than expected. He won 20 of 24 face-offs last game.Isn’t Dvorak coming back soon? As he would be better at centre than Newhook who the other day won only 1 of 11 face-offs.

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Fundy45

I believe Christian Dvorak can come off the LTIR after the Arizona game. Going on LTIR you have to sit out at least 10 games.

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morrisk

Yes, now that Dach is out, the trade talk of Dvorak is over. He would do fine as the #3 center, and Newhook can stay as a winger on the second line.

Both Anderson and Slaf are BIG issues right now. I say Slaf should be sent down to the minors for about a dozen game stint, then re re-assess. Anderson is, well, over-hyped and was never really that good and only on a second line with two other all-stars would he do “acceptably well”. Otherwise, he’s a glorified third liner – and for that cap hit, its bad. Don’t know what to do with him. If he becomes a second Armia…yikes!

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Peter

Montreal gets an unexpected bonus this week as their games with Arizona and St. Louis will be second of a back to back for both. Arizona plays in Anaheim today and St. Louis plays New Jersey on Friday before playing the Canadiens on Saturday.

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Peter

Again it happens on Tuesday when they host Tampa who play Monday night in Toronto. I don’t when that last happened that 3 straight opponents playing the Habs each time the second night of a back to back.

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Dave

It seems to happen a lot to the habs…nhl 👀

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Habs fan #31

Idk why. Maybe it’s the lefty righty thing. But kovacevic should be the player coming out of the lineup. Hes slowly starting to show, why he was cut by the jets, a few years ago. Imo

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