Uncertainty around Habs lineup as injuries pile up.

The Montreal Canadiens are set to play this afternoon but there are currently a number of question marks regarding what their lineup will look like.

On Saturday Canadiens head coach Dominique Ducharme revealed that veteran center Mathieu Perreault would miss the next two to three weeks due to an eye injury and that was only the start of the bad news. Ducharme also informed the media that both forward Brendan Gallagher and defenseman Jeff Petry had their status up in the air as far as today's game is concerned, again due to injuries.

This leaves the Habs down a number of bodies and there are some legitimate concerns about how the Canadiens plan to replace those players should they be unable to play today. According to Canadiens insider Arpon Basu, this means that we will see forward Adam Brooks suit up for the second time for the Canadiens since he was claimed off waivers from the Toronto Maple Leafs. Additionally according to Basu we will see Chris Wideman enter the lineup this evening and we could potentially see Sami Niku slotted in as well in the event that Petry is unable to go.

The greatest concern however would center around Habs forward Jake Evans. Basu reports that Evans could be called upon to step into the lineup should the aforementioned Brendan Gallagher be unable to play, a worrying thought considering Dominique Ducharme recently indicated that Evans was less than 100%. The risk of a potential injury is significantly elevated when already playing hurt, and you would like to think that there is a better solution to this potential problem for the Canadiens.

Veteran goaltender Jake Allen will get the night off after taking on a heavy workload in the wake of Carey Price's absence. Instead it will be Sam Montembeault who gets the call in net this afternoon when the Canadiens face off against the Anaheim Ducks. Montembeault has had just one start for the Canadiens this season and it was a shaky one, in that game he recorded a 5.00 goals against average and a .861 save percentage over a full 60 minutes of play.