Max Pacioretty's arrival had a few ripple effects at Canadiens practice Tuesday.

Except the one that everyone expected – Travis Moen being taken out of the top-six – didn't happen.

I asked Michael Cammalleri whether he was surprised to find himself skating alongside Moen and Tomas Plekanec at practice, considering the call-up of Pacioretty appeared to most as an obvious way to get Moen back into a checking role where he is clearly more suited to play.

"No, I'm not surprised," Cammalleri said with a straight face. "I've been playing with Travis for the past 20 games, so why should I be surprised?"

Ok, fair enough.

But I was pretty surprised, as were most of the observers at practice, to see Moen remain in a top six role and see Andrei Kostitsyn drop to a line with Jeff Halpern and Maxim Lapierre.

The opportunity to place Cammalleri and Kostitsyn back with Tomas Plekanec seemed to me at least to be an obvious choice, and it very well may turn out that way Wednesday when the Canadiens host a Philadelphia Flyers team coming off a win at home over the Penguins that put an end to Pittsburgh's 12-game win streak.

But when given the opportunity, Jacques Martin did not hide his feelings about how Kostitsyn has been playing of late with his three goals and seven assists in 21 games.

"It's his level of involvement, it's his work ethic," Martin began, rather bluntly. "He played with Plekanec, he played with other players, he went back with Plekanec. Players need to look at their own performance. He was effective when he was involved and he gave us some good hockey occasionally, but right now we need more than that. He's a big guy who's strong and he needs to go to the net and shoot the puck and be involved."

I don't profess to know everything about Martin, but I do know that he does not tend to rip players with such gusto very often. That would lead me to at least suspect that Tuesday's line combinations were a way to send a message to Kostitsyn that the hard workers – like Moen – will get the plum assignments.

Martin was asked quite directly if that was what he was trying to do, but he kind of brushed it aside by referring to the Flyers who use a guy like Darroll Powe on a line with Jeff Carter and Claude Giroux as an example of a hard working grinder making life easier for two scorers.

It's a fair point, but I just don't see Kostitsyn getting out of this funk playing with Halpern and Lapierre. In fact, I don't see him getting out of it playing with anyone other than Plekanec and Cammalleri.

When Kostitsyn was first taken off that line on Nov. 5 in Buffalo, he and Cammalleri had been held scoreless in three straight games, and Plekanec just happened to be sick and missed the game (the line was broken up in practice a couple of days before the game regardless).

Prior to that three-game slump – one in which the whole team only scored four goals – Kostitsyn had six goals and four assists in nine games. He has the exact same number of points in the 21 games since.

I realize a player of his talent should be able to play with anyone and at least maintain a respectable level of production, but Kostitsyn's fickle nature has been well documented in these parts, and the chemistry between himself, Cammalleri and Plekanec is well established, dating back to last season.

Cammalleri talked about chemistry when I asked him whether he was excited to be getting back with Plekanec after spending the past few weeks in Scott Gomez purgatory (I didn't quite put it like that). He refused to discuss specific players, but he said when you have a linemate you're comfortable with there's a certain "innateness" that develops between them, thus eliminating some of the thinking required on the ice.

With Kostitsyn's hockey sense being what it is, I reckon the less he would have to think, the better.

Pacioretty this year's Pouliot?

The same idea may apply with Gomez himself, who appears to be on his way back for Wednesday night's game in spite of his coyness with the media Tuesday (click on the video player to the right to see his comments, and those of Jaroslav Spacek, who were both working the room pretty hard. But admittedly, sports reporters are a pretty easy crowd because we'll laugh at anything that isn't a sports cliché).

I wrote about Gomez's return and the line he formed with Max Pacioretty and Brian Gionta at practice Tuesday for NHL.com.

But further to that, hearing Gomez talk about getting a spark from Pacioretty, and just judging by the fact that as bad as he's dogged it this season he's never been this bad his whole career, I have a feeling this may be the beginning of an interesting run for this line and for him in particular.

It was eerily close to this date last year that Benoit Pouliot suited up for his first game with the Canadiens (Dec. 23), and the spark he provided was tangible. Brian Gionta returned from a broken foot two games later on Dec. 28.

From Dec. 23 last year to Feb. 4, when Pouliot got hurt after scoring 11 goals in 19 games, Gomez had three goals and 16 assists. Prior to that date, Gomez had four goals and 14 assists in 34 games. In fact, from Dec. 23 on Gomez finished the season with eight goals and 33 assists in 44 games, very close to a point-per-game clip.

It's also interesting that Gomez and Gionta will be playing together for the first time Wednesday since Nov. 5, which is nearly the exact same date Gionta got injured last year (Nov. 12).

Maybe Pacioretty could be this year's version of Pouliot? Who knew Gomez needed a muse?

Canadiens lines at practice 

Forwards

Cammalleri – Plekanec – Moen

Pacioretty – Gomez – Gionta

Pouliot – Eller – Darche

Kostitsyn – Halpern – Lapierre

Scratch: Boyd (cleared waivers for the second time this season. Ouch.)

Defence

Hamrlik – Subban

Gill – Gorges

Picard – Weber

Spacek (said he was 50/50 to go against Philly)

Goal

Price (nothing official, but come on)

Auld