Canadiens at Red Wings preview

CANADIENS (27-26-8) at RED WINGS (14-43-4)
7:30 p.m. ET; FS-D, TSN2, RDS, NHL.TV

The defenseman was expected to be out 4-6 weeks with a left ankle injury but is back after missing six games. Forward Paul Byron (knee) will also play for the first time since Nov. 15.
The Canadiens are winless in their past four games (0-3-1) after winning five of their previous six (5-1-0).
The Red Wings have lost four straight games and are 2-13-1 while being outscored 59-23 in their past 16.

Players to watch

Canadiens forward Tomas Tatar has 10 points (three goals, seven assists) in 10 games against Detroit, where he played his first seven NHL seasons.
Red Wings center Dylan Larkin has a team-high 40 points (15 goals, 25 assists) but does not have a point during the four-game losing streak.

They said it

"You never want to lose all four games to a team that's below you in the standings, so that's where we need to show some pride tonight. We're not saying the Red Wings are a bad team, but they are below us, so we don't want them to sweep us." -- Canadiens coach Claude Julien
"We need to support the puck so that we can get it out of end, through the neutral zone and get possession in the O-zone. We had some great chances in these games, and we need to score more of them, but we've also got to enough sustained possession to get some dirty goals." -- Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill

Canadiens projected lineup

Tomas Tatar -- Phillip Danault -- Brendan Gallagher
Ilya Kovalchuk -- Nick Suzuki -- Jordan Weal
Artturi Lehkonen -- Max Domi -- Jonathan Drouin
Dale Weise -- Paul Byron -- Joel Armia
Shea Weber -- Jeff Petry
Ben Chiarot -- Victor Mete
Brett Kulak -- Xavier Ouellet
Carey Price
Charlie Lindgren
Scratched: Nate Thompson, Nick Cousins
Injured: None

Red Wings projected lineup

Robby Fabbri -- Dylan Larkin -- Anthony Mantha
Tyler Bertuzzi -- Valtteri Filppula -- Andreas Athanasiou
Darren Helm -- Luke Glendening -- Adam Erne
Justin Abdelkader -- Christoffer Ehn -- Brendan Perlini
Patrik Nemeth -- Gustav Lindstrom
Trevor Daley -- Alex Biega
Madison Bowey -- Jonathan Ericsson
Jonathan Bernier
Jimmy Howard
Scratched:None
Injured:Danny DeKeyser (back), Filip Zadina (lower body), Filip Hronek (upper body)

Status report

Ouellet is likely to play after the Canadiens traded defenseman Marco Scandella to the St. Louis Blues a few hours before game time. ... The Red Wings were scheduled to hold a full morning skate but instead had an optional skate after several players reported they were ill. Blashill does not expect any of them to miss the game. … Hronek is out after the defenseman was hit in the face with a puck during a 5-1 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins on Feb. 16.

Stat pack

The Canadiens have scored 31 goals in 165 power-play opportunities after 61 games. They scored 24 goals in 190 chances through 61 games last season. … Detroit is 5-1-0 against Montreal and the Boston Bruins this season but 9-42-4 against the rest of the NHL.