Canadiens juggle 'stale' 1st line; bump Alex Galchenyuk up to center at practice
After a season and a half of dithering, the Montreal Canadiens are finally giving the people what they want: Alex Galchenyuk at first-line center.
With usual third-line center Lars Eller expected to be out of the lineup Tuesday, pending the result of an MRI on Monday afternoon, Canadiens head coach Michel Therrien unveiled some new forward line combinations at Montreal's practice on Monday. Here are the new line combos, courtesy of TSN's John Lu:
#Habs lines:
Pacioretty - Galchenyuk - Gallagher
Andrighetto - Plekanec - Sekac
Bournival-Desharnais-Parenteau
Prust-Malhotra-Weise
Tangradi
— John Lu (@JohnLuTSNMtl) December 8, 2014
There's a lot to unpack here, but the sexiest storyline by far is that Galchenyuk - who has spent much of his NHL career playing the wing so far - is set to get a crack at centering the Canadiens' first line.
So far this season Galchenyuk has primarily lined up at left-wing, and he's been glued to reliable two-way center Tomas Plekanec on a secondary scoring line. A natural center with first-line upside, Galchenyuk is likely to prove more valuable to the Canadiens over the medium- to long-term in the middle of the ice. So this would appear to be a forward thinking move.
It's also notable because David Desharnais has been dropped from Max Pacioretty's wing. Pacioretty has spent 89.2 percent of his even-strength time-on-ice playing with Desharnais so far, but he seemed open to a change when asked to address it Monday:
Max Pacioretty used the word "stale" to describe his line, said change is a fresh start: "People knew what our line was up to."
— Аrpon Basu (@ArponBasu) December 8, 2014
"I hope he goes with his new line and makes me look like dead weight," Pacioretty said of Desharnais.
It would appear to be the probable end - or at least a probable break - in Plekanec receiving favorable territorial deployment. Buried in a defensive role and deployed with a notable bias towards the defensive end of the rink in recent years, Plekanec was enjoying something of an offensive renaissance this season. The turtleneck aficionado has scored nine goals and pitched in 20 total points in 29 games while holding down a more traditional secondary scoring role with the Canadiens this season.
Based on the makeup of Therrien's new forward combos, it would seem likely that Plekanec will take up Eller's usual checking role. If that's the case, we might reasonably expect that it will have a negative impact on Plekanec's point totals.