Canadiens Game 43: Drouin Returns To Montreal, Allen Starts

The Montreal Canadiens (17-18-7) are scheduled to host the Colorado Avalanche (28-12-3) at Bell Centre. The puck drop is scheduled for 7 pm ET.

Head coach Martin St-Louis will surely be satisfied with the high effort level his team put forth against the talented Edmonton Oilers on Saturday night and will hope the Habs can once again match the level of play of a Cup-contending team.

To do so, Montreal will have to improve its offensive production, as they’ve scored just five goals in their last three games.

It remains to be seen if Josh Anderson will miss another game. The streaky forward was a late scratch from the weekend matchup with the Oilers.

Jake Allen will be given the start, however, we’ll have to wait a little longer to see if there are any other modifications to the lineup. Canadiens general manager Kent Hughes will speak to the media at 11 pm ET, shortly ahead of the team taking to the ice for their morning practice. We will update the projected lines once the details are revealed by St-Louis.

As for the Avalanche, they’ve enjoyed an offensive surge from former Canadiens forward Jonathan Drouin. The 28-year-old is currently playing on Colorado’s top line and has scored 10 goals and 14 assists in 41 games this season. It’s worth noting Drouin only scored 10 goals in his last three seasons with Habs.

It’s a great story, but it also points to the injury issue that is plaguing the Avalanche. They have more players than the Canadiens on the injured reserve, including captain Gabriel Landeskog and Drouin’s former teammate in Montreal, Artturi Lehkonen.

Despite the bevy of injuries, the Avalanche are currently second in the Central Division. They’ve also scored the second-most all-situations goals of all NHL teams this season.

Nathan MacKinnon leads the team with 23 goals and 46 assists, a rather impressive production rate. Mikko Rantanen is second in team scoring thanks to his 22 goals and 33 assists.

Defenceman Cale Makar is the team’s leading scorer on the blueline. He has nine goals and 39 assists in 38 games.

To take in the view from the other side of the rink make sure to check out our sister site, Colorado Hockey Now.

Montreal Canadiens Injuries

• Carey Price (IR)
• Chris Wideman (IR)
• Kirby Dach (out indefinitely, ACL/MCL)
• Alex Newhook (out 10-12 weeks)
• Tanner Pearson (IR)
• Christian Dvorak (out)

Colorado Avalanche Injuries

• Valeri Nichushkin (day-to-day)
• Jack Johnson (day-to-day)
• Arturri Lehkonen (IR)
• Miles Wood (out)
• Gabriel Landeskog (IR)
• Bowen Byram (IR)
• Pavel Francouz (IR)

Montreal Canadiens Projected Lineup

LW	C	RW
Cole Caufield	Nick Suzuki	Juraj Slafkovsky
Rafael Harvey-Pinard	Jake Evans	Brendan Gallagher
Joshua Roy	Sean Monahan	Joel Armia
Michael Pezzetta	Mitchell Stephens	Jesse Ylonen

LD	RD
Kaiden Guhle	Mike Matheson
Jayden Struble	David Savard
Jordan Harris	Johnathan Kovacevic

Goalie
Jake Allen
Samuel Montembeault

Colorado Avalanche Lineup

Drouin – Mackinnon – Rantanen

Kiviranta – Colton – O’Connor

Cogliano – Johansen – Polin

Macdermid – Olofsson – Malinski

Defence

Toews – Makar

Johnson – Manson

Jones – Girard

Goalie

Georgiev

How to Watch Or Listen

TV

Sportsnet, RDS

Radio

Montreal Candiens: TSN 690