All Habs GameDay: Thursday November 17, 2011

On this day in hockey history… 1997 – Mario Lemieux, Bryan Trottier, Glen Sather, Flyers’ announcer Gene Hart, and Hockey News founder Ken McKenzie were inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame, in Toronto.

GAMEDAY: Habs hockey tonight!

MONTREAL CANADIENS vs NEW YORK ISLANDERS

Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum,  7:00 p.m. EST TV: RDS, MSG PLUS

Projected line combinations (will be updated following morning skate)

MONTREAL CANADIENS

Forwards
Travis Moen – Tomas Plekanec – Brian Gionta
Max Pacioretty  – David Desharnais – Erik Cole
Mike Cammalleri – Lars Eller – Aaron Palushaj
Scott Gomez – Petteri Nokelainen – Mathieu Darche

Defenseman
Josh Gorges – P.K. Subban
Frederic St. Denis – Yannick Weber
Alexei Emelin – Raphael Diaz

Goaltenders
Carey Price – Peter Budaj (will start)

Scratches
Hal Gill (flu) – Andrei Kostitsyn (groin) – Jaroslav Spacek (upper-body) – Andreas Engqvist (undisclosed)

Injuries
Chris Campoli – Andrei Markov – Ryan White

Power-play

Pacioretty – Desharnais – Cole – Weber – Plekanec
Cammalleri – Gomez – Gionta – Subban – Diaz

NEW YORK ISLANDERS

Forwards
Matt Moulson – John Travares – Michael Grabner
Brian Rolston – Frans Nielsen -P.A. Parenteau
Blake Comeau – Marty Reasoner – Nino Niederreiter
Matt Martin – Josh Bailey – Jay Pandolfo

Defensemen
Mark Streit – Steve Staios
Andrew MacDonald – Travis Harmonic
Milan Jurcina – Mike Mottau

Goaltenders
Evgeni Nabokov (will start) – Al Montoya

Scratches

Injuries

GAMEDAY: All Habs Headlines

► Smith still has a bark: Hall of Fame goaltender Billy Smith, infamous for his stickwork on forwards in the vicinity of his crease, was direct when asked how he would have reacted to a violent hit like Milan Lucic inflicted on Sabres’ goaltender Ryan Miller.

“Lucic would have never gotten me. I would have taken him out at the knees!” — Billy Smith

Smith was talking to former NHL referee Kerry Fraser in Edmonton.

►Lyin’ Part 2: Monday night’s press conference comments by Montreal head coach Jacques Martin still has fans talking.  In our game review, we described the comments of the coach that were completely opposite to what we saw on the ice.

Our friend Kyle Roussel has taken the coach to task, and posted his second piece in his “Lyin'” series.

Read more: He’s Lyin’ to You – Part 2

►From last night: The Canadiens power-play clicked with Yannick Weber notching his team-leading power-play goal.