practice10-22

The Canadiens skated at TD Garden in Boston on Saturday morning in preparation for their tilt against the Bruins.

  • All players were present and accounted for during the practice session. Both the Canadiens and Bruins are currently on two-game winning streaks.
    - Following practice, head coach Michel Therrien confirmed only one lineup change for Saturday night. After sitting out the last two games as a healthy scratch, Greg Pateryn draws back into the lineup on the blue line in place of young gun Mikhail Sergachev.
    "For us, it was important to bring back Pateryn," said Therrien, on the decision to give the Michigan native his third outing of the 2016-17 campaign. "We have a plan for the kid [Sergachev] on defense. We like the way that he played last game [against Arizona]. He improved, but in the meantime, Pateryn deserves to be in the lineup as well."
  • For his part, Carey Price will make his second consecutive start for the Canadiens. At the opposite end of the rink, the Bruins will go with goaltender Anton Khudobin as Tuukka Rask is currently listed as day-to-day.
    - Captain Max Pacioretty has been a member of the Canadiens long enough to know exactly what the team's long-standing rivalry with the Bruins is all about. That being said, the 2016-17 editions of both clubs feature several newcomers who have yet to be involved in an Original Six matchup of this nature.
    Nevertheless, the Canadiens' No. 67 still believes a game like this one has the potential to be just as intense and entertaining as the contests he's played in against Boston over the years with Montreal.
    "It's really hard to tell how tonight will play out because there are so many new faces. You look at their side, a guy like David Backes would love to play in a rivalry game like this. You know that on our side we've got Shea [Weber], who's similar [in that regard], so we're interested to see," said Pacioretty, on the subject of the first of four games the two teams will play against one another during the regular season on Saturday night.
    "Obviously, it hasn't been as physical as of late as it was my first couple of years, but it's always been great hockey. Maybe a little bit of that will come back and play into the rivalry a little bit more, but I know that divisional games on a Saturday night are always going to be fun," added the four-time 30-goal scorer, who has 14 goals and 26 points in 31 career games against Boston.
    - Nathan Beaulieu says that his partnership with Shea Weber on the Canadiens' back end is getting better and better every single game. They have a solid relationship off the ice, too, according to the 23-year-old Strathroy, ON native, who is already benefitting from the veteran rearguard's arrival this season.

"Me and Shea, we spend a lot of time together. We try to get lunch a couple of times a week. Management and staff want me to watch and see how good of a pro he is. Maturity is a big thing in hockey for a young defenseman. He's one of the best guys in the league a young guy could follow," praised Beaulieu. "The message is to soak everything up, watch how he takes care of himself and see how he prepares for games. I'm just trying to pick up as much as I can from him."
- Puck drop is scheduled for 7 p.m. EST. The game will be broadcast on City Montreal and TVA Sports, as well as on TSN 690 and 98.5 fm.
Probable lineup against Boston:
Pacioretty - Galchenyuk - Gallagher
Lehkonen - Plekanec - Radulov
Byron - Desharnais - Shaw
Danault - Mitchell - Flynn
Beaulieu - Weber
Markov - Petry
Emelin - Pateryn
Price
Montoya