All Habs News: Thursday April 21, 2011  Game Day!

Happy Birthday!! All Habs community: tell us! NHL: Vincent LeCavalier, Alexander Edler

►Pouliot out!:In the extended break between games, Benoit Pouliot has been the prime topic of conversation. Pouliot will likely be a healthy scratch against the Bruins tonight. He did not take part in drills with the top-four lines during practise at the Bell Sports Complex on Wednesday.

We have been a strong advocate of sending Pouliot to the press box since the playoffs began. He has now gone 27 games without a goal. In 22 playoff games in his career, he has no goals, two assists and is a minus-4.

►Halpern in: Jeff Halpern is scheduled to make his return and find himself on a line with Lars Eller and Travis Moen. Halpern will be playing the wing but could be available for important faceoffs.

Lines from practise:
Plekanec – Cammalleri – Kostitsyn
Gomez – Gionta – Darche
Eller – Moen – Halpern
Desharnais – White – Pyatt

►Scratches: Unless some nagging injuries keep a regular out of the lineup, you can expect the following as healthy scratches: Yannick Weber, Alexandre Picard, Paul Mara and Benoit Pouliot.

►In over his head: It seems that the playoff stage is somewhat beyond David Desharnais at this stage in his career. Despite getting plenty of power-play time in the regular season, Desharnais has now gone 19 games without a goal.

The team would be better served by inserting Yannick Weber in the lineup. The versatile Weber can play a fourth line forward position, man the point on the second unit of the power-play, and spell Jaroslav Spacek when fatigue sets in as we saw in Game 3.

►New gear: Carey Price was wearing new pads in practise. No word on whether we will see them for Game 4.