Montreal Canadiens-Ottawa Senators: Bob Gainey Shuffles the Deck

The Montreal Canadiens make the trek to Kanata tonight to meet their division rival Ottawa Senators.

The Habitants currently sit tied for the seventh spot in the Eastern Conference with 81 points.

Canadiens' head coach Bob Gainey appears to be making some line changes to his struggling team.

Yesterday afternoon's practice had the following trios:

Saku Koivu was centering Christopher Higgins and Alex Tanguay, while Tomas Plekanec was reunited with Andrei Kostitsyn and Alex Kovalev.

Maxim Lapierre played with Guillaume Latendresse and Tom Kostopoulos, and Glen Metropolit was between Max Pacioretty and Matt D'Agostini.

Defensive pairings have been switched as well:

Andrei Markov-Mathieu Schneider

Mike Komisarek-Josh Gorges

Roman Hamrlik-Patrice Brisebois.

Carey Price will get the start in goal tonight.

The Canadiens will try to avoid their fourth consecutive loss tonight and will be looking to stay perfect this season against the hot Senators.

Ottawa has responded well to new head coach Cory Clouston by winning six of their last seven and are 12-5-2 since Feb. 7.

The Senators have also won their last five home games.

Ottawa's top line of Dany Heatley, Jason Spezza, and Daniel Alfredsson has picked it up on the score sheet, combining for 27 points in its past seven games.

Rookie goaltender Brian Elliott, however, has really carried the team, going 6-0-0 with a 2.12 goals against average since March 5.

The Senators and their fans would like nothing more than to help play spoiler in the Canadiens' quest to make the playoffs.