For starters, the match-up will see Habs veteran Hal Gill playing his 1,000th game in the NHL and a Canadiens win could also find Carey Price celebrating his 100th win in the league. To add to the anticipation hours before the 7:00 p.m. puck drop at the Consol Energy Center, Jacques Martin addressed the media to make an important announcement.

“[Michael] Cammalleri will play in tonight’s game. He’s had a couple of practices now and seems to be okay, so we’ll see how he handles it tonight,” dropped the Habs head coach on the return of the team’s resident sniper.

Cammalleri will face the Pens on Thursday night.

“I think one area where he’ll be able to help our team is on the powerplay with his ability to shoot the puck,” continued Martin. “But we’ll see how he fits in and decide who he’ll be playing with at game time.”

A question mark leading up to tonight’s game against Pittsburgh, it was even doubtful earlier in the week if Cammalleri would be ready to face the Leafs on Saturday night.

“I’ve said it before – every injury is different, every human body is different and that’s why it’s hard to put dates on these things,” expressed Cammalleri, who was originally expected to miss 10-15 days of action. “We were keeping an eye on the injury and the last couple of days have been good, so we’ll just hope it holds up tonight. I’ve learned at this point not to be surprised one way or another, but just to be happy about it.

“It was scary at first, mostly because I didn’t know what damage had been done. But it seems to have healed up pretty quickly and it feels good enough to go, so let’s go. Allons-y.”

Despite Cammalleri’s impending return to action, the Canadiens will still be facing the Penguins without the serivces of veteran defenseman Jaroslav Spacek, who continues to recover from an upper body injury.

“Spacek’s still not ready to play. We’re hoping to see him back in the lineup sometime next week, but he won’t be dressing for Saturday night’s game,” added Martin on the subject of his other injured player.

Spacek took to the ice for about a half-hour following the Canadiens’ practice to skate with Aaron Palushaj Peter Budaj and members of the team’s coaching staff.

Justin Fragapane is a writer for canadiens.com.

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