-- Neither Kirk Maltby (back) nor Kris Draper (knee) will play tonight in Montreal. Draper didn't make the trip with the team. Maltby is here, but wasn't able to skate this morning.
-- Coach Mike Babcock was evasive when asked if he was going to split up Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg saying that he doesn't even know what line he's going to start tonight.
"I'm just going to do what I do every night, whatever allows us to be successful," said Babcock. "They'll play together on the power play for sure and whatever matchup works good for us, whether it be Pavel at center and Hank at center … we go back and forth during the game all the time. We'll see what happens."
-- The Montreal media was speculating that Michael Ryder might be a healthy scratch tonight. The two-time 30-goal scorer has three goals in 26 games this season.
-- Carey Price will start in net for the Habs. Christobal Huet hurt his groin in Montreal's last game and won't dress tonight. Jaroslav Halak, the 22-year-old Slovak who went 10-6-0 for Montreal last winter, was called up from Hamilton to back up Price.
-- Montreal's probable lines ...
Higgins-Koivu-Streit
Kostitsyn-Plekanec-Kovalev
Latendresse-Chipchura-Dandenault
Begin-Smolinski-Ryder
Markov-Brisbois
Bouillon-Gorges
Hamrlik-Komisarek
Price (starts)
Halak