We had an unusual situation earlier today with the Montreal Canadiens involving the defensemen.

During practice, significant changes were observed on defense.

 

That led to the following:

Mike Matheson – Alex Carrier

Lane Hutson – David Savard

Arber Xhekaj – Jayden Struble

We thought these were the new defensive pairs for the Canadiens, but not so fast.

 

Martin St-Louis backtracked in his press conference.

An unusual situation involving the Montreal Canadiens’ defensemen

I have no idea why, and it’s really strange, but the Canadiens’ head coach revealed in his press conference that the defensive pairs will remain the same as last Saturday.

 

So why change your defensive pairs during the morning skate, on the morning of a game, for no apparent reason?

It’s obviously nothing too serious, but I don’t understand why the correct pairs weren’t practicing together on the morning of a game.

Anyway, if you see this going around, I thought it was worth clarifying the situation.

So, even though the Canadiens strangely changed their defensive pairs completely during the morning skate today, the pairs will remain intact.

Here’s what the pairs should look like for tonight’s game against the Buffalo Sabres:

Carrier-Matheson

Struble-Hutson

Savard-Xhekaj

It’s also worth noting that Quebec native Samuel Montembeault will be in net tonight, as reported earlier today.

It should be an exciting second matchup in three nights between Montreal and Buffalo!