The Montreal Canadiens (44-20-7) return home from their brief road trip to host the Hurricanes (26-34-9) Thursday night at the Bell Centre. The game starts at 7:30 and airs on RDS and Sportsnet East.

Match Up

This is the third and final game between the Habs and Canes this season, and the second in Montreal. The Canadiens have earned a 4-1 home win and a 3-1 road win already against the Hurricanes. Alex Galchenyuk recorded his first career hat trick against Carolina in the 4-1 victory.

What to Watch

Canadiens: It’s been a pretty good week to have Brandon Prust on your fantasy team. Typically a bottom six role player, Prust had a combined two assists and racked up 12 penalty minutes in Montreal’s games against the Lighning and Panthers. In his third season with the Habs, Prust now has 4 goals and 16 points, not quite on pace for his career high 29 point season that he had with the Rangers, but pretty good nonetheless.

Hurricanes: It’s been tough for the Hurricanes to find offense this season, they rank near the bottom of the league averaging just 2.29 goals per game. Justin Faulk is the team’s leading scorer with 45 points, very respectable for a defenseman. Eric Staal’s production meanwhile has dipped significantly, he has 43 points in 64 games this year, ranking him 88th in the league in scoring.

What’s at Stake

There are just 11 games remaining in the season for the Habs and the Hurricanes are among the lowest teams in the standings that the Habs will face to close out their year. While the Canes have not yet been mathematically eliminated from the playoff race, even 13 straight wins to end the season would only give them 87 points, which presumably wouldn’t be enough to crack the top eight in the East.

Who’s Out

New additions Torrey Mitchell (arm) and Brian Flynn (upper body) are expected to miss brief periods for the Habs, but both should be ready to play before the playoffs start up.

The Hurricanes are without Cam Ward (illness), John-Michael Liles (lower body) and Jack Hillen (concussion).

What Else

For a fourth straight game, the Canadiens scored in a special teams situation on Tuesday against the Panthers, although, as it had been twice in the previous three games, their special teams marker came shorthanded rather than on the power play. Jacob De La Rose scored his third goal of the season converting a two-on-one break shorthanded, bringing the Habs up to six such goals on the year. It’s just an extra feather in the cap of a penalty that is already sixth best in the league.

The Question Mark

Aside from goaltending, what has been the Habs’ biggest strength this season?

As always, we’ll be going over your answers on the Montreal Hockey Talk Habs Pregame Show, starting an hour before each Canadiens game on montrealhockeytalk.com.