Canadiens Game Day: Start of Habs-Oilers game delayed until 8 p.m.

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The NHL announced Thursday afternoon that the start of Thursday night’s game between the Canadiens and Edmonton Oilers at the Bell Centre has been delayed from 7 p.m. until 8 p.m. as a result of an Oilers player being placed in the league’s COVID-19 protocol earlier in the day.

The delay to the start time was done to allow for the completion and analysis of COVID-19 tests on Oilers players to be done before the game.

Jesse Puljujarvi did not take part in Edmonton’s morning skate at the Bell Centre and Oilers coach Dave Tippett said the right-winger was being held out for “precautionary reasons” and would be re-evaluated in the afternoon.

Jake Allen will be in goal for the Canadiens against the Oilers (8 p.m., TSN2, RDS, TSN 690 Radio, 98.5 FM).

Allen has won his last two games and made 34 saves in his last start, a 2-1 win over the Senators Saturday in Ottawa. Price has lost his last two games and allowed three goals on 23 shots in Wednesday night’s 4-2 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs at the Bell Centre. Toronto’s fourth goal was into an empty net.

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Allen has a 4-1-0 record with a 1.81 goals-against average and a .940 save percentage. Price is 4-2-2 with a 2.84 goals-against average and a .896 save percentage.

During a video conference Thursday morning, coach Claude Julien said the goaltending switch was the only change he could confirm to his lineup but that there might be others before the game. It was announced Thursday that Corey Perry has been placed back on the taxi squad, so it looks like Paul Byron will get back in the lineup after being a healthy scratch for Wednesday’s game against Toronto.

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Mike Smith will be in goal for the Oilers. He injured himself doing stretching exercises before the start of the season and has only played one game, making 27 saves in a 3-1 win over the Ottawa Senators on Monday. Mikko Koskinen was in net for the Oilers when they beat the Senataors 3-2 Tuesday night.

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Searching for their ‘A’ game

The Canadiens still rank first in the NHL in offence with an average of 3.85 goals per game, but they have only scored two goals in each of their last three games while posting a 1-2-0 record.

The Canadiens are now in second place in the North Division with an 8-3-2 record, five points behind the Maple Leafs (11-2-1), who have played one more game. The Canadiens have a 5-0-2 record on the road, but are 3-3-0 at home.

Julien said his team needs to find its ‘A’ game again.

“Right now, I think there’s another level to our game and it’s been there — it was there earlier in the season,” Julien said. “It’s slipped a little bit.

“When I say ‘A’ game, it’s just that there was a time there where we had a really good transition game,” the coach added. “We were sharp, we were quick and all that stuff, and that’s the thing that we’re trying to recapture there. It’s slipped a little bit. I don’t think we’re playing bad hockey. We know we’re capable of another level and that’s what we’re trying to recapture here is that next level.”

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Phillip Danault also talked Thursday morning about how the Canadiens’ game has slipped the last three games.

“We had our identity at the beginning of the year,” he said. “We were working hard, we had a good pace on the game. We were controlling the game as well. We’ve slowed down a little bit, so we got to get back on track and bring more emotion to the game as well.”

Danault also needs to find his game. He and Byron are the only two Canadiens forwards without a goal this season and Danault has only one goal in his last 36 games dating back to last season. Danault, who has five assists, also struggled in the faceoff circle Wednesday night against Toronto, going 4-8 (33 per cent). For the season, Danault is winning 52.1 per cent of his faceoffs.

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Line juggling

Julien juggled his lines during the third period of Wednesday night’s game, taking Tomas Tatar off his regular line with Danault and Brendan Gallagher and putting him with Jesperi Kotkaniemi and Joel Armia. Tyler Toffoli took Tatar’s regular spot.

Tatar responded by scoring a goal at 16:40 of the third period, cutting Toronto’s lead to 3-2. It was Tatar’s first goal in 11 games, giving him 4-4-8 totals for the season.

“Whatever line you’re on, you’re trying to bring something to change the course of the game,” Tatar said Thursday morning. “I felt like we had a few good shifts. I enjoyed it. We were fortunate to put one in. Obviously, the result wasn’t there, so at the end of the day we were not happy. We would be more satisfied if the goal would have helped to win a game.”

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After Wednesday’s optional morning skate in Brossard, Tatar spent time working with associate coach Kirk Muller on his shot.

“I’m actually pretty confident in my shot,” said Tatar, who had a team-leading six shots against the Leafs. “We were working more on the details.

“Kirky’s trying to help players … I really appreciate it, too,” Tatar added. “Always when he has something to add or what he sees I’m very happy to listen. The NHL is a game of details and you want to be on top of it. So I don’t mind to put that extra work there to feel better in that situation and I think it helped me in the game, too.”

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Oilers on a roll

The Oilers are in third place in the North Division with an 8-7-0 record and can tie the Canadiens in points with a regulation-time victory Thursday night.

The Canadiens won back-to-back games against the Oilers in Edmonton last month by scores of 5-1 and 3-1, but the Oilers are 5-1-0 in their last six games. Connor McDavid leads the NHL in scoring with 9-18-27 totals, while teammate Leon Draisaitl ranks second with 8-17-25 totals.

“There’s ups and downs in seasons with every team,” Julien said about the Oilers. “I think right now they seem to be feeling it pretty good. They’re a good skating team. They’ve got some good firepower up front, we know that. So maybe they’ve stabilized their game a little bit in watching them play.

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“But our approach and our game plan against them should not be any different than it was when we first played them,” the coach added. “From our end of it, we just got to make sure we bring our ‘A’ game, which I think hasn’t quite been there in the last few games here. We got to kind of up, I guess, our ‘A’ game to a level that we know we can play at. Right now it’s not terrible, but it’s just not good enough.”

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Power play struggling

The Canadiens’ power play is 1-for-13 in the last four games and now ranks 17th in the NHL with a 21.3 per cent success rate.

“I think we have to work on cleaner breakouts and just have that extra poise and make that play,” Tatar said about the power play. “We were talking about having a shot mentality first and create our chances from there. It’s all about winning your battles. We lost a few on the boards last game, which after they cleared the puck out it can’t happen. We have to be stronger on the wall. I think once we set up in the zone we’re actually doing a pretty good job in creating our chances.”

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Price works on shot

The Canadiens held an optional morning skate Thursday in Brossard and Price went on the ice in a track suit instead of his pads and was taking shots on taxi-squad goalie Charlie Lindgren.

At one point, Price caught Lindgren with a shot up high, which was filmed by a TVA Sports cameraman. Lindgren was OK.

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Andrew Shaw in concussion protocol

The Chicago Blackhawks announced Thursday that former Canadiens forward Andrew Shaw has been put in concussion protocol.

Shaw, 29, has a history of concussions and was limited to 26 games last season as a result of one. He had pondered retirement before returning to play this season.

Blackhawks coach Jeremy Collation said Shaw suffered his latest concussion from an elbow to the face in a game Tuesday night against the Dallas Stars, adding “it’s terrible, it’s tough,” that Shaw is now back in concussion protocol.

When he was the Canadiens’ nominee for the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy for the 2018-19 season — which goes to an NHL player who best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to hockey — Shaw said he didn’t know how many concussions he had suffered during his hockey career, but figured he had three or four in the NHL. He has now had two more since then.

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What’s next?

The Canadiens have a practice scheduled for 11 a.m. Friday at the Bell Sports Complex in Brossard before heading to Toronto, where they will play the Leafs Saturday night (7 p.m., CBC, SN, CITY, TVA Sports, TSN 690 Radio, 98.5 FM). After that, the Canadiens will have a six-day break in the schedule before facing the Leafs again the following Saturday at the Bell Centre (7 p.m., CBC, SN, CITY, TVA Sports, TSN 690 Radio, 98.5 FM).