Canadiens Lineup

Harvey-Pinard – Nick Suzuki – Kirby Dach

Denis Gurianov – Jonathan Drouin – Josh Anderson

Mike Hoffman – Alex Belzile – Brendan Gallagher

Michael Pezzetta  – Chris Tierney – Rem Pitlick

Mike Matheson – David Savard

Joel Edmundson – Justin Barron

Johnathan Kovacevic – Chris Wideman

Sam Montembeault – Jake Allen

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Carey Price (knee), Paul Byron (hip), Sean Monahan (lower-body), Jake Evans (lower-body), Juraj Slafkovsky (lower-body), Cole Caufield (shoulder), Arber Xhekaj (upper-body), Joel Armia (illness), Christian Dvorak (lower-body), Jordan Harris (lower-body), Kaiden Guhle (lower-body), Jesse Ylonen (illness)

Game Report

Brendan Gallagher was inserted into the lineup tonight after missing 32 games with a lower-body injury. At one time, Gallagher’s return would have been enough to inject an enormous boost of energy into the Canadiens playing at the Bell Centre. Apart from a two-minute penalty for tripping in the first period, Gallagher was simply a footnote in his 14 minutes of ice time.

But it was the second player returning to the lineup who made the most difference tonight. Kirby Dach has missed 16 games with a misdiagnosed virus that turned into a lower-body injury. Dach joined Nick Suzuki on the Canadiens first trio and immediately made it competitive against Tampa’s top line.

Suzuki looked like a different player than the one who struggled against the Lightning on Saturday night in Florida. The captain created turnovers and recorded two assists as Dach completely changed the complexion of the line. Dach’s speed and smarts pressured opponents and supported his linemates.

Marty St. Louis wanted to stack the top line with Dach tonight so that they could go head-to-head with Tampa but reaffirmed that the plan is to move him back to centre. St. Louis says that Dach is the ultimate competitor wanting to own the puck even in practice.

Dach scored his 13th goal of the season in 20:44 of ice time.

Up Next

The Canadiens head to Boston to face the Bruins on Thursday night. Josh Anderson was injured late in the game and will not travel to Boston.

The team has announced that Kaiden Guhle will miss the remainder of the season with a high ankle sprain.

Plus

Minus

▼  Chris Tierney, Michael Pezzetta, Rem Pitlick, Chris Wideman, Alex Belzile, David Savard, Josh Anderson

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