Canadiens To Take On Fleury One Last Time

Sorel native Marc-Andre Fleury asked his coach with the Minnesota Wild John Hynes if he could have the start in Montreal on Thursday night. Given that the Wild was playing on Wednesday, one of the two starts was going to be his and it wasn't a big ask for the veteran to play one last game at home.

Of course, Hynes agreed and tonight, Fleury will get his final swan song in town. It will be his 47th game against the Montreal Canadiens and so far, he has a winning record of 27-13-6, with a 2.91 goals-against average and a .904 save percentage.

Meanwhile, Martin St-Louis has already revealed that Jakub Dobes will be between the pipes for the game. The rookie has never taken on the Wild, but he has quite the record so far this season, he's 5-0-1 with a 1.93 GAA and a .933 SP.

The Canadiens announced yesterday that Kaiden Guhle has suffered a lacerated quad which required surgery and that he'd be out for an indefinite period of time. As a result, Jayden Struble who was on a conditioning stint with the Laval Rocket was called up.

Guhle wasn't the only absent from practice, as Josh Anderson, who had looked in pain in last night's game, took a therapy day. Raphael Harvey-Pinard skated with Jake Evans and Joel Armia in his absence while Michael Pezzetta was still on a line with Brendan Gallagher and Christian Dvorak.

The two sides faced off once already this season when the Wild blank the Canadiens 3-0 in Minnesota in mid-November. Samuel Montembeault and Filip Gustavsson were in net, but they won't be tonight. The Wild has won the last eight duels though and nine of the last 10, so it's easy to know who is the underdog going in.

Two of the Wild's best players against the Canadiens, Marcus Johansson (24 points in 33 games) and Kirill Kaprisov (13 points in seven games) are currently injured, but they'll still want to keep an eye on Marcus Foligno (15 points in 33 games). Zach Bogosian with 15 points in 46 games and Mats Zuccarello with 12 points in 27 games complete the (active) top-three.

For the Canadiens, Patrik Laine has got 15 points against the Wild in 21 career-games, miles in front of David Savard who has 10 points in 23 games and Brendan Gallagher wraps up the top-three with eight points in 17 games.

The game is set for 7:00 PM and the Canadiens will be heading out west on Friday. They'll be taking on the Anaheim Ducks on Sunday before playing a back-to-back against the San Jose Sharks and the Los Angeles Kings on Tuesday and Wednesday.

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