Good news today for the Montreal Canadiens, as it appears some of their banged-up players are almost ready to return to game action. The Canadiens are off tonight, but take on the Sabres tomorrow in Buffalo.
Habs coach Claude Julien confirmed to the media that Brendan Gallagher is likely to play in tomorrow night's contest. Gallagher has sat out 10 of the past 11 games due to concussion-like-symptoms. The gritty forward has 32 points in 41 games on the season. Gallagher had missed four straight games due to a concussion and appeared to return too early as he immediately experienced headaches during his first game back against the Edmonton Oilers. It is likely that both the Canadiens medical staff and Gallagher himself were more cautious this time around and are confident he is fully healthy.
Julien also said this morning that both Max Domi and Arturi Lehkonen are both game time decisions. Both forwards appear to have caught an illness which has kept them out of practice the past two days. Despite a down season compared to last year's breakout 72-point campaign, Domi is still third on the Habs in scoring with 34 points. Although Lehkonen isn't as valuable as Domi, he has been a decent secondary scorer this year with 11 goals and 12 assists in 51 games.
Last but certainly not least is the extremely talented Jonathan Drouin. Drouin has been ruled out for tomorrow's game, but has been practicing and sounds like he is very close to returning. An injured wrist which required surgery has had him out of the lineup since November 15th. Drouin had been having a productive start to the season before his injury, putting up 15 points in 19 games.
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Currently sitting 10 points out, the playoffs do not look likely for the Habs this year. One positive to take out of them getting healthy however is that they should be able to be competitive for the final stretch of the season.
