Coyotes at Canadiens preview
Raanta expected to start for Arizona after Kuemper injury; Montreal eyes season-high fourth straight win
by Sean Farrell / NHL.com Independent Correspondent
COYOTES (27-23-7) at CANADIENS (27-23-7)
7 p.m. ET; TSN2, RDS, FS-A PLUS, NHL.TV
The Game
Goalie Antti Raanta is expected to start for the Arizona Coyotes against the Montreal Canadiens at Bell Centre on Monday after Darcy Kuemper sustained a lower-body injury during the morning skate.
Kuemper, who has missed 20 games with a lower-body injury, is day to day. He has not played since Dec. 19.
Raanta had a lower-body injury that kept him out of a 4-2 loss at the Boston Bruins on Feb. 8.
Adin Hill will be the backup for the Coyotes, who are 2-7-3 since Jan. 9. They're one point behind the Calgary Flames for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference and two behind the Winnipeg Jets, who hold the first wild card.
The Canadiens will try for a season-high fourth straight win. They're 9-3-0 following an 0-7-1 skid and six points back of the Carolina Hurricanes for the second wild card from the East.
Players to watch
Coyotes forward Taylor Hall has 11 points (four goals, seven assists) in his past 10 games.
Canadiens goalie Carey Price is 8-2-0 with a 1.58 goals-against-average and.950 save percentage in his past 10 games.
They said it
"They like to funnel pucks and they're a good counterattack team. And they've got some forwards that are not scared to go to the net. Brendan Gallagher's a small guy but if you look, he makes a living in front (of the net). They have some players like that, so we've got to box out." -- Coyotes coach Rick Tocchet
"We just can't afford to have letdowns. We can't afford to lose too many games. So we've just got to stay the course here and continue to play one game at a time and understand how important that win is to us in the standings." -- Canadiens coach Claude Julien
Coyotes projected lineup
Taylor Hall -- Christian Dvorak -- Conor Garland
Lawson Crouse -- Derek Stepan -- Phil Kessel
Clayton Keller -- Nick Schmaltz -- Vinnie Hinostroza
Carl Soderberg -- Brad Richardson -- Christian Fischer
Oliver Ekman-Larsson -- Ilya Lyubushkin
Jakob Chychrun -- Alex Goligoski
Jordan Oesterle -- Niklas Hjalmarsson
Antti Raanta
Adin Hill
Scratched: Aaron Ness, Michael Grabner
Injured: Jason Demers (lower body), Darcy Kuemper (lower body)
Canadiens projected lineup
Tomas Tatar -- Phillip Danault -- Brendan Gallagher
Ilya Kovalchuk -- Nick Suzuki -- Joel Armia
Jonathan Drouin -- Max Domi -- Artturi Lehkonen
Nick Cousins -- Nate Thompson -- Jake Evans
Brett Kulak -- Jeff Petry
Ben Chiarot -- Victor Mete
Marco Scandella -- Xavier Ouellet
Carey Price
Charlie Lindgren
Scratched: Christian Folin, Jordan Weal, Dale Weise
Injured: Shea Weber (lower body), Paul Byron (knee)
Status report
Ekman-Larsson is a game-time decision after practicing for a second straight day. He's missed four games with a lower-body injury. … The Canadiens will use the same lineup for a second straight game. … Byron, a forward, is expected to be on Montreal's two-game road trip. Weber will not. The Canadiens are waiting for swelling to go down to further assess the defenseman.
Stat pack
Dvorak has scored five goals in his past eight games. … Kovalchuk has 12 points (six goals, six assists) in 15 games since signing with Montreal on Jan. 3. He leads the Canadiens with three game-winning goals, including his second overtime goal Saturday.