Habster:

If the practice lineup is an indicator, then it would appear that Christopher Higgins will start tomorrow’s game playing the third line along side Robert Lang and Sergei Kostitsyn while Guillaume Latendresse will remain on the second line with Koivu and Tanguay.

Both Higgins and Bouillon haven’t been given the green light by doctors to play in tomorrow’s tilt yet but looked good throughout today’s practice. Both players have stated they haven’t experienced any pain or discomfort (Bouillon’s foot and Higgins’ groin) during the past five days of skating and are very anxious to get some game action under their belts.

Higgins also stated he doesn’t consider playing on the third line as a demotion and why would he, when you consider he’ll be playing with two quality playmakers like Sergei Kostitsyn and Robert Lang. Either way, Higgins should get plenty of scoring chances. Let’s just hope he can bury more of them this season and get the 35-40 goals he should have got if he had scored on some of those open net chances from last season!!!

Having Francis Bouillon back on the blueline will also be an added bonus as he was playing some of the best hockey of his career teamed with the always solid Josh Gorges.



These were the lines used at today’s practice at the Martin Lapointe Arena:

Forwards:

A. Kostitsyn – Plekanec – Kovalev
Tanguay – Koivu – Latendresse
Higgins – Lang – S. Kostitsyn
Laraque – Lapierre – Kostopoulos/Begin

Defense:

Komisarek – Markov
Hamrlik – O’Byrne
Brisebois – Gorges
*Dandenault and Bouillon were also used throughout practice with the other defensemen.