Music: {allcanada} Etem in for Palmieri as Duck face Canadiens

Thursday, December 18, 2014

{allcanada} Etem in for Palmieri as Duck face Canadiens

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MONTREAL -- The Anaheim Ducks look to put a rare lopsided loss behind them Thursday against the Montreal Canadiens at Bell Centre.

Anaheim ended a seven-game winning streak with a 6-2 loss at the Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday. The Ducks lead the NHL with a 21-7-5 mark for 47 points.

"Good teams bounce back and we consider ourselves a good team," Anaheim coach Bruce Boudreau said after the morning skate. "We've had a good stretch here but we don't want it to end on a bad note. There's a lot of character and pride in that room and I know we're going to put our best foot forward (Tuesday)."

The Ducks wrap up their five-game road trip Friday at the Ottawa Senators.

Forward Emerson Etem will play against the Canadiens in place of Kyle Palmieri, who sustained a shoulder injury Tuesday. Etem, who was recalled from Norfolk of the American Hockey League on Wednesday, has two goals and four points in 21 games this season with Anaheim.

"He's played great games for us. We just want to see it on a daily basis," Boudreau said. "We want to see the consistency of his speed, the consistency of his physical play; the consistency all the time rather than teasing us one minute and it's great, and then the next minute it's not so great. And I think that happens to an awful lot of young guys."

Rene Bourque will face Montreal for the first time since he was traded to Anaheim for defenseman Bryan Allen on Nov. 20.

Playing on captain Ryan Getzlaf's line, Bourque has one goal and three assists in 12 games. He had two assists in 13 games with the Canadiens before he was assigned to Hamilton of the AHL on Nov. 10.

Forward Lars Eller will be a game-time decision for Montreal, which has won the first three games of its five-game homestand. Eller has missed four games because of an upper-body injury. Eric Tangradi will draw into the lineup if Eller is unable to play.

The Canadiens will honor Saku Koivu in a pregame ceremony. Koivu, who was Montreal's captain from 1999-2009, spent his first 14 seasons in the League with the Canadiens, and five with the Ducks before retiring at the end of last season.

Here are the projected lineups.

DUCKS

Rene Bourque - Ryan Getzlaf - Devante Smith-Pelly

Matt Beleskey - Ryan Kesler - Emerson Etem

Andrew Cogliano - Rickard Rakell - Jakob Silfverberg

Patrick Maroon - Nate Thompson - Tim Jackman

Cam Fowler - Ben Lovejoy

Clayton Stoner - Sami Vatanen

Colby Robak - Hampus Lindholm

Frederik Andersen

Ilya Bryzgalov

Scratches: Mark Fistric, Dany Heatley

Injured: Francois Beauchemin (broken finger), Corey Perry (knee) Eric Brewer (broken foot), Kyle Palmieri (shoulder), Sheldon Souray (right wrist)

CANADIENS

Max Pacioretty – Alex Galchenyuk – Brendan Gallagher

Jiri Sekac – Tomas Plekanec – Dale Weise

Brandon Prust – David Desharnais – Pierre-Alexandre Parenteau

Michael Bournival – Manny Malhotra – Eric Tangradi

Andrei Markov – P.K. Subban

Alexei Emelin - Sergei Gonchar

Nathan Beaulieu – Tom Gilbert

Carey Price

Dustin Tokarski

Scratched: Mike Weaver, Bryan Allen, Lars Eller

Injured: None

Status report: Beauchemin took part in the morning skate but Boudreau ruled out a return against Montreal. "(Beauchemin) is being really smart about it," Boudreau said. "There's a lot of things he could do, he could play, but if it's not ready to go and he got it banged the wrong way and he's out eight to 10 more weeks, we're losing a really important piece to the puzzle, and we want to make sure that he's right before he comes back in and that finger's healed." ... Weaver missed the past three games because of a concussion. He is available, but will sit out along with Allen, who will miss his sixth game in a row.

Who's hot: Getzlaf has two goals and three assists during a three-game point streak. Kesler has five goals and three assists in his past six games. ... Galchenyuk had a first NHL hat trick Tuesday. Pacioretty has one goal and four assists in his past three games, including the primary assist on each of Galchenyuk's three goals Tuesday.

Merry Christmas II You - Mariah Carey