Rick Stephens

It's Brendan Gallagher.

No one argues that he is the heart and soul of the Canadians missing a step.

And so he'll be the healthy scratch.

And this goes back to the beginning of his career in the NHL with the Montreal Canadiens.

He was a healthy scratch in 2013 for his very first game.

And then, yes, of course he's missed time because of injuries, but he hasn't been a healthy scratch since.

So a difficult decision.

They're talking about more of a meritocracy.

Like to see that also apply to Zach Bolduc, but we'll see.

We'll see how things go.

Yeah.

And it's already been announced that Gallagher will be back in the lineup.

The Canadians have the back-to-back Saturday and Sunday that he'll be back in the lineup on Sunday.

We'll see who sits then.

And that's exactly what his buddy Jake Evans said, that you're going to see a very gritty, feisty, motivated Brendan Gallagher on Sunday.

And we're going to assume that that means that Jacob Fowler will be starting on Sunday night.

It's going to be interesting to see.

Now, the way they skated in practice, we expect that Texier will just take Gallagher's place on that fourth line with Deneau and Anderson, but...

Texier in the lineup gives Marty St.

Louis some options, and you could very well see Texier up with Suzuki and Caulfield, slot Slavkovski.