Game day notebook: Alexander Romanov returns to the Canadiens lineup

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Alexander Romanov will be back in the Canadiens’ lineup Thursday night when they face the New York Islanders at the Bell Center. (7 pm, TSN2, RDS, TSN 690 Radio, 98.5 FM) but Jonathan Drouin won’t.

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Romanov was a healthy scratch for the first time this season in the Canadiens’ 3-0 win over the Detroit Red Wings on Tuesday night. Romanov will take Sami Niku’s place in the lineup.

Drouin left Tuesday night’s game after being shot in the head in first period, and went to the hospital to be examined. Drouin was on the ice for Thursday’s morning skating at the Bell Sports Complex in Brossard, but will not be in the lineup against the Islanders. Adam Brooks will take his place.

“There’s no concussion,” Ducharme said after the morning skating when asked about Drouin. “But he still has a disc on his head and there is a bruise there. Just skating and wearing a helmet creates … so we want to make sure it’s not a concussion because it’s not 100 percent. It’s not like an elbow or a shoulder or something like that. So we want to be careful about that so he’s not in the lineup. “

The Canadiens are 3-8-0, while the Islanders are 3-2-2.

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Learning process

Romanov, who is 1-1-2 total and under-3 in 10 games this season, has had a tendency to be overly aggressive and catches him out of position.

“(The defense) is a position that takes more time, I think for sure, and we are working with him,” Ducharme said of the 21-year-old Romanov. “At the same time, we wanted him to take a different look at the game, to step back and take that time. And we want to see it back in action right away and apply those things. I’ll see how you react. We trust that if you take that time and look at the game differently, you get it. “

Romanov continues to improve his English, but Ducharme said he and the coaching staff have many ways to communicate with the Russian defender.

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“We use different shapes,” Ducharme said. “We don’t just talk to him, we watch clips and we look at situations. We put those guys in those situations on the ice in practice, so that’s another way to communicate and teach.

“We expect better on those kinds of plays and those decisions, and to be that consistent.”

The big Z

The Islanders’ Zdeno Chara will play Thursday night in the 1,616th game of his regular-season career, ahead of Larry Murphy and third on the NHL defender’s all-time list. The only two defenders ahead of Chara on the list are Chris Chelios (1,651) and Scott Stevens (1,635).

If the 44-year-old Chara stays healthy, she will move to number one before the end of this season.

Chara is ranked 11th on the all-time list for games played by any player. The top three on the list are Patrick Marleau (1,779), Gordie Howe (1,767) and Mark Messier (1,756).

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The 6-foot-9, 250-pound Chara is pointless in seven games this season with the Islanders while averaging 18:10 of ice time. He signed a one-year, $ 750,000 deal with the Islanders as a free agent during the offseason.

“It seems like it was three years ago that he was playing his 1,500th game here in Montreal (with the Boston Bruins), something like that,” the Canadiens’ Brendan Gallagher said when asked about Chara. “Obviously he has been in great shape. I’ve seen him once or twice, been in battles with him, a guy you enjoy playing with, especially with me.

“You always hear that you’re going to be too small to play at this level, not that I’ve ever bothered, but I always enjoy playing against the bigger guy,” added 5-foot-9, 184-pound Gallagher. “If you’re going to challenge yourself, challenge yourself against the greatest and the best, and that was always him. So I had some fun matchups with him and I look forward to meeting tonight. “

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The lines

Here’s what the attack lines and defense pairs looked like at Thursday’s morning skating:

Toffoli – Suzuki – Gallagher
Hoffman – Drouin – Anderson
Lehkonen – Dvorak – Army
Pezzetta – Evans – Belzile
Paquette – Brooks

Chiarot – Petry
Ear – Savard
Romanov – Wideman
Niku – Norlinder

Ducharme said he would move his crosses from where they were at the morning skate with Drouin not playing and Brooks taking his place in the lineup.

“But I just came off the ice,” added the coach. “You’ll see when the game starts.”

Norlinder sent to Laval

The Canadiens announced Thursday afternoon that defender Mattias Norlinder has been assigned to AHL’s Laval Rocket for conditioning reasons.

The 21-year-old recently began practicing with the team after recovering from an undisclosed injury sustained during training camp. The Canadiens selected Norlinder in the third round (64 overall) of the 2019 NHL Draft.

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Whats Next?

Thursday’s game against the Islanders is the second of five in a row at the Bell Center for the Canadiens. On Saturday, the Vegas Golden Knights will be the visitors (7 pm SNE, CITY, TVA Sports, TSN 690 Radio, 98.5 FM).

Next week, the Los Angeles Kings will be at the Bell Center on Tuesday (7 p.m., TSN2, RDS, TSN 690 Radio, 98.5 FM), followed by the Calgary Flames on Thursday (7 p.m. TSN2, RDS, TSN 690 Radio, 98.5 FM) ).

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