All Habs GameDay: Thursday September 29, 2011

Happy Birthday to Hamilton Bulldogs goalie Nathan Lawson (28) and former Canadiens player, Benoit Pouliot (25).

►Hockey tonight! Pre-season Game #7: Tampa Bay Lightning vs. Montreal Canadiens

Bell Centre 7:30 pm. EDT

TV: RDS, TSN

MONTREAL CANADIENS

The Canadiens practised using the following alignments on Wednesday morning.

Forwards
Mike Cammalleri – Tomas Plekanec – Erik Cole
Max Pacioretty – Scott Gomez – Brian Gionta
Brendan Gallagher – David Desharnais – Andrei Kostitsyn
Michael Bournival – Andreas Engqvist – Michael Blunden

extras (blue jerseys): Mathieu Darche – Yannick Weber – Lars Eller – Aaron Palushaj

Defenseman
Hal Gill – P.K. Subban
Chris Campoli – Josh Gorges
Jaroslav Spacek – Raphael Diaz

Alexei Yemelin – Jeff Woywitka
extras (blue jerseys): Alex Henry – Frederic St-Denis

Goaltenders
Carey Price
Peter Budaj

Peter Budaj is expected to get the start on goal on Thursday night while we should see Carey Price on Saturday night in the final pre-season game.  Brendan Gallagher will be in the line-up on Thursday night and could even see action again on Saturday.

►UPDATE: Projected lines for Canadiens and Lightning

The following line combinations were on the ice for the Thursday morning skate.

MONTREAL CANADIENS

Forwards

Mike Cammalleri – Tomas Plekanec – Erik Cole
Max Pacioretty – Scott Gomez –  Brendan Gallagher
Andrei Kostitsyn – David Desharnais – Brian Gionta
Michael Bournival – Andreas Engqvist – Michael Blunden

Defenseman
P.K. Subban  – Alexei Yemelin
Chris Campoli – Josh Gorges
Hal Gill – Raphael Diaz

Goaltenders
Peter Budaj – starting goalie
Carey Price (backup)

scratches: Mathieu Darche, Yannick Weber, Lars Eller, Aaron Palushaj, Jaroslav Spacek, Jeff Woywitka

Expect to see Vincent Lecavalier, Martin St-Louis, Eric Brewer, Mattias Ohlund, Teddy Purcell, Steven Stamkos, Marc-Andre Bergeron and Bruno Gervais in the line-up for the Tampa Bay Lightning.

►New look power-play: Having the luxury of three scoring lines means that there are a surplus of offensive players for the power-play.  That allowed coach Jacques Martin the luxury of experimenting with a forward on the point for each power-play unit.  That’s the positive spin — of course, it’s clear that Martin is looking for a replacement for the experience that a healthy Andrei Markov would have provided.

“We’re still experimenting to be completely sure who’s going to be on our back end, and one thing is that in the absence of Markov, we’re trying to find someone to quarterback our powerplay on the first unit. Right now we’re experimenting with a forward in that position.” — Jacques Martin

►Dogs practise in Brossard: The Hamilton Bulldogs were on sheet B at the Bell Sports Complex on Wednesday morning. The roster continues to fill out with additional cuts from the Montreal Canadiens training camp — the most recent additions are winger Brian Willsie, defenseman Frederic St-Denis and goalie Nathan Lawson.  Head coach Clement Jodoin ran a crisp practise with drills focussed on zone breakouts.

Following the structured portion of the workout Philip DeSimone and Gabriel Dumont had a friendly face-off competition with DeSimone winning by a wide margin.

Two injured players Louis Leblanc and Olivier Fortier took full part in the practise although still wore blue no-contact jerseys.  With an underwhelming season last year and a missed training camp, it is clear that Leblanc has dropped down the depth chart.  Consensus is building that Leblanc’s NHL career will likely top out in the role of a third-line centre or right-winger.

►Henry waived: Defenseman Alex Henry was placed on waivers on Wednesday to facilitate his assignment to the Hamilton Bulldogs.  Henry struggled throughout camp to keep pace with the NHL game, but his leadership is valued in Hamilton.  The veteran AHL’er served as the Bulldogs captain last season.

For a complete list of the players who remain in training camp please see our tracker in the right sidebar.

►Returnees lift junior teams to wins: While some cuts from Canadiens training camp are practising as Bulldogs others returned to the junior teams.  Defenseman Morgan Ellis was named the game’s 1st star in his first game back as his Cape Breton Screaming Eagles defeated the PEI Rocket 5-2 in QMJHL play.  Ellis, the Screaming Eagles captain, had an assist and two power-play goals, including the game-winner.

[blackbirdpie url=”https://twitter.com/#!/CBSEHockey/status/119207829633638400″]

Nathan Beaulieu headed to Boisbriand, Quebec after leaving Canadiens training camp to meet up with his junior team, the St. John Sea Dogs. Beaulieu scored the insurance marker in a 3-1 win over the Blainville-Boisbriand Armada burying a one-timer on the power-play for his first goal of the season.  It is the first season for the Armada in the QMJHL after relocating from Verdun where they operated as the Montreal Juniors.

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Will Martinez from Hey, My Name Is Will looks at the Canadiens most recent addition to the defensive corps. Read: The Ripple Effect of the Chris Campoli Signing