Sharks at Canadiens: Lines, gamethread, and where to watch

The Sharks (20-12-4, 3rd Pacific) will look to clean up the mess they left in Dallas last year tonight when they visit the sinking Canadiens (16-19-4, 6th Atlantic) in La Belle Province. The Habs are fast approaching disaster status, entering tonight's game as losers of four in a row in regulation for the first time this season, most recently a disheartening 2-0 loss to the similarly hapless Florida Panthers. They ended their recent road trip 2-5-0, and will maybe get a little more juice out of a return home, their first since 14 December.

To add fuel to the fire, rumors have begun circulating that Montreal general manager Marc Bergevin is actively shopping team captain Max Pacioretty. Pacioretty went goal less through the entire month of December, and has eight points in his last 21 contests, but "sell low, buy high" seems to be a mantra of the Habs recently (see: Drouin, Jonathan, Weber, Shea).

The Sharks are looking to bounce back as well, having ended the year with a 6-0 shelling at the hands of the Dallas Stars. Despite showing few signs of life in that game, head coach Peter DeBoer seems hesitant to shake up his line up too much, scratching Tim Heed for the second straight game, and Paul Martin for the third. Aaron Dell is set to start tonight, and as a winner of his last five consecutive starts, it's not hard to see why. Hopefully the Sharks can recreate their last game against this team, a 4-2 win in San Jose on 17 October, including a dominant two goal, two assist night from Logan Couture.

The Dallas debacle can be left squarely in 2017 with a win tonight, and with a record of 6-2-2 in their last ten, it's not unreasonable to look for the Sharks to salvage this five game road trip tonight.

Sharks Lines

Timo Meier -- Joe Thornton -- Joe Pavelski

Tomas Hertl -- Logan Couture -- Joonas Donskoi

Mikkel Boedker -- Chris Tierney -- Kevin Labanc

Marcus Sorensen -- Joel Ward -- Melker Karlsson

Brenden Dillon -- Brent Burns

Marc-Edouard Vlasic -- Justin Braun

Joakim Ryan -- Dylan DeMelo

Aaron Dell

Martin Jones

Scratched: Tim Heed, Paul Martin, Jannik Hansen

Injured: Barclay Goodrow (lower body)

Canadiens Lines

Alex Galchenyuk -- Jonathan Drouin -- Artturi Lehkonen

Max Pacioretty -- Phillip Danault -- Charles Hudon

Paul Byron -- Tomas Plekanec -- Brendan Gallagher

Nicolas Deslauriers -- Andrew Shaw -- Daniel Carr

Jordie Benn -- Jeff Petry

Karl Alzner -- David Schlemko

Joe Morrow -- Jakub Jerabek

Carey Price

Antti Niemi

Scratched: Jacob de la Rose, Byron Froese, Brett Lernout

Injured: Shea Weber (foot), Ales Hemsky (upper body), Al Montoya (concussion)

Where to Watch

Broadcast: NBCSCA, TSN2, RDS

Stream: NHL.tv / NHL App

Radio: 98.5 KFOX / NHL App / Sharks App