Hurricanes-Canadiens Preview
MONTREAL -- The Montreal Canadiens' top line held the fort while the team waited for its secondary scoring to finally return. Now that the other lines are joining in, coach Claude Julien is searching for a solution to his suddenly stagnant first unit.
While the likes of Paul Byron, Phillip Danault, Artturi Lehkonen and Tomas Plekanec -- among several others -- finally found the back of the net in recent games, Montreal's top trio of Max Pacioretty, Alex Galchenyuk and Alexander Radulov has cooled off, accounting for one point in the last three games.
Pacioretty has just two goals in his last 10 games and Radulov, who was regularly recording multi-point games through the first two-thirds of the season, has one goal and six points in his last 14 games, with four of those points coming in one game.
Galchenyuk, who was on a tear in late February and early March, has been held off the scoresheet in three straight and is without a goal since Feb. 28.
Looking for a spark as his club gets set to host the Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday, Julien made some changes at Wednesday's practice, inserting Danault on the top line while Galchenyuk lined up at left wing with Andrew Shaw at center and Lehkonen on the right side.
"We thought those three guys together, if they had that chemistry going, would have been a dangerous line," said Julien, who will be vying for his 550th career NHL win, after the team's practice on Wednesday. "We gave them some games, from the two against Ottawa until last night, but there comes a time when you have to make a decision for the individual, as well as for the team.
"Alex (Galchenyuk) is very comfortable at both positions, so we had a good chat this morning," Julien added. "He's very open, and he wants to win. When you have guys with that attitude, there really are no issues."
The Canadiens (41-23-9) are coming off a 2-1 overtime loss to the Detroit Red Wings on Tuesday. It kicked off a final stretch in which Montreal will only face one team -- Ottawa on Saturday -- in a playoff position.
"We talked about it before the game that teams that are out of the playoff hunt have nothing to lose so they were going to come out hard," Canadiens defenseman Jeff Petry said after Tuesday's game. "I don't think we matched that intensity early on."
Montreal will need to be ready from the outset against Carolina. The Hurricanes (31-27-13), while on the outside of the playoff picture, have been on a roll since March 9, posting a 5-0-3 record during that stretch.
"We're getting contributions from everyone," forward Jeff Skinner told the team's website. "When you go on a run, you're going to have to win different ways and have to have guys step up on different nights and get key plays at key times in games. For us, goaltenders Eddie (Lack) and Wardo (Cam Ward) have had some real good games in that stretch, and special teams have been a factor."
Skinner has been at the forefront of that hot streak, recording his third two-goal game in his last six outings in Carolina's 4-3 win over the Florida Panthers on Tuesday night. The 24-year-old brings an eight-game point streak, including five goals in the last three games, into Thursday's contest and is two shy of the 30-goal mark for the third time in his career.
Skinner also is three tallies from tying Hurricanes assistant coach Rod Brind'Amour (174) for third on Carolina's all-time list since the franchise relocated from Hartford.
"He's at the net. He's doing things right," coach Bill Peters said after Tuesday's game. "He went to the net hard on the game-winner and got rewarded for it. You do good things on a consistent basis, and typically you will get rewarded in this league."