All Habs GameDay: Tuesday December 6, 2011

On this day in hockey history… 1995 – Colorado Avalanche obtained goaltender Patrick Roy and Mike Keane from the Montreal Canadiens, in exchange for Andrei Kovalenko, Martin Rucinsky and goalie Jocelyn Thibault.

GAMEDAY: Habs hockey tonight!

 COLUMBUS BLUE JACKETS vs MONTREAL CANADIENS

Bell Centre,  7:30 p.m. EST TV: RDS

Projected line combinations (updated following morning skate)

MONTREAL CANADIENS

Forwards
Max Pacioretty – Tomas Plekanec – Brian Gionta
Mike Cammalleri  – David Desharnais – Erik Cole
Andrei Kostitsyn – Lars Eller – Travis Moen
Mathieu Darche – Petteri Nokelainen – Louis Leblanc

Defenseman
Josh Gorges – P.K. Subban
Hal Gill – Raphael Diaz
Alexei Emelin – Yannick Weber

Goaltenders
Carey Price (unconfirmed) – Peter Budaj

Scratches
Frederic St. Denis

Injuries
Scott Gomez – Jaroslav Spacek – Chris Campoli – Ryan White – Andrei Markov

Power-play
Cammalleri – Desharnais – Cole – Weber – Subban
Kostitsyn – Plekanec – Gionta – Gorges – Diaz

COLUMBUS BLUE JACKETS

Forwards
Kristian Huselius – Jeff Carter – Rick Nash
Vinny Prospal – Ryan Johansen – Mark Letestu
Antoine Vermette – Samuel Pahlsson- Derek Dorsett
R.J. Umberger – Derek MacKenzie – Jarret Boll

Defensemen
Marc Methot – James Wisniewski
Fedor Tyutin – Nikita Nikitin
Aaron Johnson – Grant Clitsome

Goaltenders
Curtis Sanford (will start)  – Steve Mason

Scratches
Derick Brassard

Injuries
Radek Martinek – Mark Dekanich

GAMEDAY: All Habs Headlines

► Cue the hype: With the return of Max Pacioretty, some expected his three-game replacement, Louis Leblanc, would be returned to the Hamilton Bulldogs.  But this is Montreal, the same place that rushed Guillaume Latendresse into service to placate media and fans.  So, Andreas Engqvist and Aaron Palushaj lost the hometown-rigged lottery, and headed west.

It’s at times like this that the mainstream media put their skirts on to cheer for a local hero, ‘merit be damned!’

“Maybe Leblanc hops over the boards against the Blue Jackets and starts a new era, like another Harvard dropout, Mark Zuckerberg, did with this Facebook thing. A bright bilingual star, if Leblanc ever becomes one, could heighten the element of patrimony and reconnect the next generation of fans to the team.” — Michael Farber

Read more: Montreal seeks homegrown spark