Montreal Canadiens head coach Michel Therrien finally has seen enough of defenseman Douglas Murray.
The veteran defenseman will be a healthy scratch Monday night when the Canadiens fight for their Stanley Cup playoff lives in Game 6 against the Boston Bruins at Bell Centre. Therrien will turn to 21-year-old Nathan Beaulieu, who will make his career postseason debut as the Habs try to force a Game 7.
The move isn’t a huge surprise given the way Murray has played in the series. The slow-footed blueliner has been a liability in his own zone, as the Bruins — especially Boston’s third line — had taken full advantage of Montreal’s pairing of Murray and Mike Weaver. The young Beaulieu is a much, much better skater than Murray, which should help the Canadiens generate team speed in all three zones. Beaulieu could add some offense to a Montreal team that has scored just two power-play goals in the last two games.
The Canadiens also will reinsert Danny Briere into the lineup, and Travis Moen is headed to the press box.
The Bruins will try to end the series with the same lineup they’ve used in the last two games.
Bruins
Milan Lucic — David Krejci — Jarome Iginla
Brad Marchand — Patrice Bergeron — Reilly Smith
Matt Fraser — Carl Soderberg — Loui Eriksson
Daniel Paille — Gregory Campbell — Shawn Thornton
Zdeno Chara — Dougie Hamilton
Matt Bartkowski — Johnny Boychuk
Torey Krug — Kevan Miller
Canadiens
Max Pacioretty — David Desharnais — Thomas Vanek
Michael Bournival — Tomas Plekanec — Brendan Gallagher
Rene Bourque — Lars Eller — Brian Gionta
Travis Moen — Danny Briere — Dale Weise
Josh Gorges — P.K. Subban
Andrei Markov — Alexei Emelin
Nathan Beaulieu — Mike Weaver
