Martin St-Louis sends quite a message by changing his lineup for the game against the Blue Jackets

In the last few hours, Montreal Canadiens head coach Martin St-Louis announced that he would be making a change for tonight's matchup against the Columbus Blue Jackets.

He confirmed that defenseman Justin Barron, who has been left out of the last six games, will finally be returning to the lineup.

He will play alongside Arber Xhekaj on the third defensive pairing while Jayden Struble, who was the victim of a very costly penalty against the Minnesota Wild, will have to watch the game from the top of the bridge.

Although Martin St-Louis mentioned that this change was not motivated by the performance of number 47, but by the need to give Justin Barron playing time, let's just say that this modification comes at an opportune time.

Even though he didn't want to admit it to reporters, I really feel like the Canadiens head coach wanted to send a message to his young defenseman, who allowed the Wild to double their lead midway through the third period Thursday night.

As for the attack, no changes are expected for the game against the Blue Jackets, with the exception of Brendan Gallagher who could possibly have to miss his first game this season, having missed practice this morning.

If ever the Habs' number 11 is unable to take part in the game, Rafaël Harvey-Pinard could potentially make a return to the game.

Remember that the 25-year-old forward suffered a broken leg towards the end of July, unfortunately being forced to miss the entire training camp as well as the first month of action in the NHL.

Here is the lineup that should face the Blue Jackets tonight:

It should be noted that Samuel Montembeault will get his second consecutive start, he who did rather well against the Wild Tuesday night, stopping 25 of the 27 shots directed at him.

Since the start of the season, the Quebec goalie has posted a goals-against average of 3.38 and an efficiency rate of 0.897. If his statistics are not up to expectations, it is mainly because Montembeault is the victim of numerous turnovers in defensive territory.

In your opinion, will the Canadiens win tonight?

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