Canadiens at Avalanche preview

CANADIENS (17-12-5) at AVALANCHE (18-10-6)
8:30 p.m. ET; ALT, SN, SN360, RDS, NHL.TV

Price is 299-210-66, all with Montreal, and is 5-1-0 in his past seven games (six starts). He made 31 saves Monday in a 4-0 loss to the Boston Bruins. Price would be the 35th goaltender in NHL history with 300 victories.
The Canadiens are beginning a six-game road trip. They don't play again at Bell Centre until Jan. 3 against the Vancouver Canucks.
Philipp Grubauer will start for the Avalanche, who are 1-3-1 in their past five games, allowing 25 goals. Grubauer is 7-0-3 in his past 10 starts.

Players to watch

Canadiens defenseman Jeff Petry has seven points (four goals, three assists) in his past six games.
Avalanche forward Mikko Rantanen leads the NHL in scoring (56 points) and assists (41). He had 27 points (eight goals, 19 assists) in a 14-game streak that ended Monday in Colorado's 4-1 loss to the New York Islanders.

They said it

"Six games on the road, where we are in the standings (the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference) I think it's important we do well. We have to come out of there, especially on the road, with a minimum of a .500 record if you want to stay in the hunt. You have to go a minimum of .500." - Canadiens coach Claude Julien
"This is a team in Montreal that works extremely hard. They've got really good team speed, they're tenacious on pucks. We have to match their urgency and their work ethic tonight. Energy from the drop of the puck is real important to our team." - Avalanche coach Jared Bednar

Canadiens projected lineup

Tomas Tatar -- Phillip Danault -- Brendan Gallagher
Jonathan Drouin -- Max Domi - Paul Byron
Andrew Shaw -- Jesperi Kotkaniemi -- Artturi Lehkonen
Charles Hudon -- Michael Chaput -- Kenny Agostino
Mike Reilly -- Shea Weber
Victor Mete -- Jeff Petry
David Schlemko - Jordie Benn
Carey Price
Antti Niemi
Scratched:Nicolas Deslauriers, Brett Kulak, Matthew Peca
Injured:Joel Armia (knee)

Avalanche projected lineup

Gabriel Landeskog -- Nathan MacKinnon -- Mikko Rantanen
Tyson Jost - J.T. Compher - Sven Andrighetto
Matt Nieto -- Carl Soderberg -- Matt Calvert
Gabriel Bourque - Alex Kerfoot -- Colin Wilson
Samuel Girard -- Erik Johnson
Ian Cole - Tyson Barrie
Nikita Zadorov - Patrik Nemeth
Philipp Grubauer
Semyon Varlamov
Scratched:Sheldon Dries
Injured:Mark Barberio (upper body), Vladislav Kamenev (shoulder)

Status report

Mete was recalled from Laval of the American Hockey League and defenseman
Noah Juulsen
was assigned to Laval. … Kerfoot will play after missing four games with an upper-body injury.

Stat pack

The Canadiens are 0-for-25 on the power play in their past eight games … MacKinnon has two goals and eight assists during a six-game point streak. He is second to Rantanen in the NHL scoring race with 53 points.