Habs aim for fifth straight win vs. resurgent Canes

MONTREAL -- The Carolina Hurricanes will look to prevent the Montreal Canadiens from establishing a new season high with a fifth straight win when the two clubs meet tonight at Bell Centre.

The game marks the return of Hurricanes coach Kirk Muller and defenseman Jaroslav Spacek to Montreal, while Canadiens defenseman Tomas Kaberle will also be facing his former teammates for the first time since the trade involving he and Spacek on Dec. 9.

The Hurricanes come in on a nice roll of their own with a 6-2-4 record in their last 12 games, and aside from long-term casualties Brian Boucher in goal and Joni Pitkanen on defense, they are also arriving healthy.

The Canadiens' lineup for this game will be a lot of guesswork beyond starting goaltender Carey Price, who will face Cam Ward in the Hurricanes net.

A lower-body injury to Yannick Weber and Travis Moen re-aggravating an upper-body injury last week that had previously cost him five games led the Canadiens to call up Ryan White and Ian Schultz from the Hamilton Bulldogs of the AHL on Sunday evening.

White has missed the whole season recovering from hernia surgery in training camp, but he played three games in three days while on a conditioning stint in Hamilton and playing Monday would be his fourth game in as many days. Still, he appeared determined to go even though coach Randy Cunneyworth called his status a game-time decision.

Schultz's status is the same after his surprise call-up left the Canadiens with 13 healthy forwards. The most likely scenario would see White return and Schultz left aside while one of Chris Campoli or Raphael Diaz would be scratched on defense. Or Cunneyworth could go with seven defensemen as he has for much of this winning streak and also scratch Aaron Palushaj along with Schultz up front.

Frankly, all scenarios are equally possible for the Canadiens, so with that in mind here are the possible lineups for tonight's game:

HURRICANES
Tuomo Ruutu - Eric Staal - Jiri Tlusty
Jussi Jokinen - Jeff Skinner - Jerome Samson
Andreas Nodl - Brandon Sutter - Patrick Dwyer
Anthony Stewart - Tim Brent - Chad LaRose

Tim Gleason - Bryan Allen
Jay Harrison - Justin Faulk
Jaroslav Spacek - Jamie McBain

Cam Ward
Justin Peters

CANADIENS
Max Pacioretty - David Desharnais - Erik Cole
Mathieu Darche - Tomas Plekanec - Rene Bourque
Ryan White - Lars Eller - Louis Leblanc
Andrei Kostitsyn - Scott Gomez

Josh Gorges - P.K. Subban
Tomas Kaberle - Alexei Emelin
Hal Gill - Raphael Diaz
Chris Campoli

Carey Price
Peter Budaj