A new NHL season gets underway Wednesday night but the Montreal Canadiens won’t have defenceman Karl Alzner and centre Tomas Plekanec in the first game.
Canadiens head coach Claude Julien announced Wednesday the two veterans will be healthy scratches when the Canadiens visit the Toronto Maple Leafs.
This will be the first regular-season game Alzner will miss since the 2009-10 campaign. Alzner’s ironman streak of 622 games was the fourth-longest active streak in the NHL behind Keith Yandle (715), Patrick Marleau (706) and Phil Kessel (692).
Alzner joined the Canadiens as a free agent when he signed a five-year, $23.125-million contract in 2017 but underwhelmed in his first season with Montreal.
“We’re going with the 20 best players to start the season, but it’s just one game out of 82,” Julien told reporters. “We’ll adjust for the second game depending how things go tonight.”
Plekanec returned to the Canadiens in the summer on a one-year deal. The 35-year-old had spent the first 981 games of his NHL career with the Canadiens but was traded to the Maple Leafs where he played 17 games.
Canadiens lines and defensive pairings were as follows at Wednesday’s morning skate.
Forwards
Tatar – Danault – Gallagher
Drouin – Kotkaniemi – Armia
Byron – Domi – Lehkonen
Hudon – Peca – Shaw
Plekanec
Scherbak
Defencemen
Mete – Petry
Reilly – Juulsen
Ouellet – Benn
Alzner
Goalies
Price
Niemi
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