Habs News: Montreal Canadiens, NHL, Mike Hoffman, Alex Belzile, Adam Brooks, Jake Evans, Jake Allen, Dominique Ducharme

ROCKET SPORTS MEDIA | MONTREAL, QC. — This is your one-stop destination every week day for your Canadiens news capsule. Here are your Habs Headlines!

GAME DAY: SJS @ MTL

The Montreal Canadiens look to get on the winning track against the San Jose Sharks at the Bell Centre.

Puck drop is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. ET.

Watch for our full game preview available on Tuesday afternoon. Post-game we will publish a comprehensive game recap.

Be sure to bookmark AllHabs.net and visit often.

Hoffman to make debut?

During Monday’s practice, Canadiens forward Mike Hoffman lined up next to Adam Brooks and Brendan Gallagher. The 31-year-old native has been recovering from a lower-body injury suffered in the off-season. Hoffman did not participate in the Habs training camp.

The Kitchener, Ontario native was signed by the Canadiens to a three-year-contract as a free agent on July 28th.

“[Mike Hoffman] is close,” said Ducharme. “We’ll see how he’s feeling in the morning, but it’s looking good.”

“The body feels good and I’m ready to go,” said Hoffman.

“I had a lot of energy as a kid, so I was always shooting pucks in my garage and playing around, playing road hockey and on the ice working on it. I did put in a lot of effort and time at a young age, and then kind of developed the technique,” said Hoffman. “I remember going to watch the Kitchener Rangers play and how they would shoot off one leg. I thought it looked kind of cool, so I started trying it.”

Belzile on waivers

On Monday, the Canadiens placed forward Alex Belzile on waivers. If not claimed by by 2:00 pm. on Tuesday, Belzile will be assigned to the Laval Rocket. The 30-year-old has not played a game this season. In his career, Belzile has two games in the NHL, 256 games in the AHL and 168 games in the ECHL.

Lines / Pairings / Goalies

On Monday morning, the Canadiens practiced at the Bell Centre at 11:45 am.

These were the forward lines, defence pairings and goaltenders:

Tyler Toffoli – Nick Suzuki – Cole Caufield
Jonathan Drouin – Christian Dvorak – Josh Anderson
Mike Hoffman – Adam Brooks – Brendan Gallagher
Artturi Lehkonen – Mathieu Perreault – Joel Armia
Alex Belzile – Cedric Paquette

Alexander Romanov – Jeff Petry
Ben Chiarot – David Savard
Brett Kulak – Sami Niku
Chris Wideman

Samuel Montembeault

Injury Update

Canadiens forward Jake Evans (upper-body injury) had a therapy day and did not attend practice. Evans is listed as questionable for Tuesday night’s game. Jake Allen did not participate in practice but skated with goaltending coach Eric Raymond.

Here is the Canadiens current injury list:

Joel Edmundson (undisclosed) – one weeks
Mattias Norlinder (lower-body) – indeterminate
Carey Price (player assistance program) – early November
Paul Byron (hip) – end of December
Shea Weber (multiple injuries) – out for the season

Team Photo

The Canadiens practiced at the Bell Centre on Monday as all members of the team, players and management, posed for the annual team photo.

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