Montreal Canadiens

Habs can clinch playoff spot tonight as they host the Panthers
March 30, 2017, 3:08 PM ET [26 Comments]
Jennifer B Cutler
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The Montreal Canadiens will be hoping to take advantage of the Florida Panthers Thursday night at the Bell Centre as neither goaltender Roberto Luongo or James Reimer are healthy and available to play. Instead Reto Berra will get the start for the Panthers with Adam Wilcox backing him up. By contrast, the Panthers will have the unenviable task of facing Carey Price who is 8-2 in his last ten games.

It has been a disappointing season for the Florida Panthers who are all but sure to miss the playoffs after winning the Atlantic division a year ago. Gerard Gallant paid the price and lost his job as head coach for the Panthers lackluster first part of the season. However, under general manager Tom Rowe’s direction behind the bench the team has not fared much better. To further that, Rowe’s inexperience behind the bench showed as he allowed star defenseman Aaron Ekblad to return from concussion without sufficient practice time after having been medically cleared to play. He promptly injured his neck in his return to game action and has not played since. To perhaps make matters worse for his players, Rowe recently said that:

“Just because guys don’t have contracts, doesn’t mean they can’t get traded either.”

He was criticizing players who are underperforming but it is highly debatable if the problem is the players on the ice or the man standing behind them. The Canadiens have some experience in that department as it became obvious that former head coach Michel Therrien lost the room and that his players were no longer playing for him. The Panthers ownership will need to do some soul searching this coming off-season to decide if Rowe is the right person to lead the team on and off the ice.

The Panthers lines against the Canadiens will be:




The Canadiens offense came alive in their last win and they will need to build from that in order to find some consistency before the end of the regular season. It is expected that their lineup will remain unchanged from their 4-1 victory over the Dallas Stars Tuesday night:

Forwards:

Max Pacioretty-Phillip Danault-Alexander Radulov
Paul Byron-Tomas Plekanec-Brendan Gallagher
Alex Galchenyuk-Andrew Shaw-Artturi Lehkonen
Dwight King- Steve Ott-Torrey Mitchell

Defense:

Andrei Markov-Shea Weber
Alexei Emelin-Jeff Petry
Nathan Beaulieu-Jordie Benn

Goaltender Zach Fucale has been returned to the ECHL Brampton Beasts while Charlie Lindgren was called up on an emergency basis from the St. John’s Ice Caps on Wednesday. Al Montoya continues to be Day to day with an injury and it would not at all be surprising if Lindgren gets a start should Montoya be unable to return to the lineup before the end of the regular season. The last thing that the Canadiens want is a tired Price going into the playoffs…

The Canadiens will have extra motivation on the line as they will have an opportunity to clinch their return to the postseason with a victory over the Panthers tonight.