GAME DAY | Canadiens – Blues : Preview, Lines, Goalies, TV, Fantasy

• Blues’ head coach Ken Hitchcock on his team’s jam-packed season to date (the Blues have played a league leading 47 games so far): “The real issue is we’ve got nothing in the tank and we’ve got to find some energy, that’s the bottom line. … We’ve got to play a game on Saturday; we’ve got to focus on Saturday. We’ve got to find some energy. Take [Friday] off, gas everything (up), get 10 minutes in on Saturday morning and put it all into Saturday night.”
• GM Marc Bergevin had this to say about one of the newest members of the Canadiens’ organization, Victor Bartley: “Victor Bartley, 27, is a defenseman with good size with over 100 games played at the NHL level. He adds depth to the group of defencemen of our organization. Steady on the blue line he has shown at the junior and the AHL levels that he can also contribute offensively.”
• Dale Weise on the team’s struggles of late: “We have to have some urgency. If you look at our division, there are six teams that are right in the mix. The positive is that we are going to get out of this tailspin and start stringing some wins together. From there we will continue to climb,”
• Max Pacioretty on the Canadiens’ loss to the Blackhawks Thursday night: “Lack of scoring has been a big part of the last month-and-a-half or so. We have to find ways to score goals, we had some good pushes there in the third. The game opened up a bit and we felt like we skated pretty well. I thought we wore them down towards the end, but that’s a team that you most likely have to score more than one goal against to win the game.”
• While the Canadiens have a 4-10-0 record versus teams in the Western Conference this season, the Blues boast a 7-9-5 record against teams from the East.
• The Canadiens have maintain their placing in the goals against category, they are currently in 9th in the league in goals against, with 109 in 44 games. The Blues surprisingly find themselves in 20th in the league, with 118 goals scored over their first 47 games.
• The Canadiens have surprisingly maintained their standing in the goals for category as they are currently in seventh place in the NHL, with 123 over their first 44 games. Unsurprisingly, the Blues are in a tie for 13th place in this category with 117 goals scored in 47 games.

• This year has been a tale of two tapes for Alex Galchenyuk in terms of fantasy production. Since his 5 game point streak was halted at the Winter Classic versus the Bruins, the 21 year-old has only one point in 5 games (but has put up 13 shots over that span). Galchenyuk is still almost guarantee to play top-six minutes and play with some of the best players on the team, and he is currently lined up to play on the second unit powerplay, so his slump shouldn’t last too long. His longest pointless streak of this season is four games and he currently sits at three for this slump. I would recommend starting Galchenyuk unless your roster is full and you in a relatively shallow league. In daily leagues, he would be a risky pick but you could reap the rewards if he is able to maintain his high shot volume of late and earn a point or two.
• Top scorers for the Blues at home this season are:

1. Alex Steen (with 23 points in 25 games).
2. Vladimir Tarasenko (with 22 points in 23 games)
3. Kevin Shattenkirk (with 18 points in 20 games)

• Top scorers for the Canadiens on the road this season are:

1. Max Pacioretty  (with 18 points in 22 games)
2. Alex Galchenyuk, Tomas Plekanec, and P. K. Subban (all with 16 points in 22 games)
3.  Andrei Markov (with 15 points in 22 games)

Player stats from War-on-Ice, NHL.com and Yahoo Sports.