by Garry McKay, The Hamilton Spectator , The Hamilton Spectator

Defenceman Ryan O'Byrne and forward Ben Maxwell arrived from the Montreal Canadiens in time to join the practice session at Copps Coliseum in preparation for tonight's meeting with the Syracuse Crunch.

No sooner was that practice over when Yannick Weber, Max Pacioretty, captain Kyle Chipchura and goaltender Marc Denis were packing their gear and heading out to join the Habs in New Jersey for their National Hockey League game there tonight.

The American Hockey League club was also expecting the arrival yesterday afternoon of defenceman Frederic St. Denis, who they called up from Cincinnati Cyclones of the ECHL.

While the players going up were naturally excited about the possibility of getting a chance to suit up with the parent club, O'Byrne was pretty happy about getting to play with the Bulldogs tonight and tomorrow evening.

The 6-foot-6, 228-pounder is here on a conditioning stint. It can't be any longer than a couple of weeks and could be as little as a few days.

He said all he was told was that he would play tonight and then again tomorrow when Hamilton hosts Iowa and that Montreal general manager Bob Gainey would be here for both games and that they would reassess afterwards.

"I haven't played for about two and a half weeks," O'Byrne said.

"It does me no good just sitting there and watching. It's good for me to come here and play some minutes and get my confidence back since I've gone through a rough couple of months there."

O'Byrne's rough stretch in Montreal included scoring on his own net when he attempted to pass the puck to his own goaltender, not realizing that Carey Price had gone to the bench because of a delayed penalty.

"It will be nice to get my legs back and get into game shape," he added. "The three games that I played in the last month, I was getting nine minutes with no PK (penalty kill) or PP (power play). That's tough. You're not out there in meaningful minutes or pressure situations.

"It will be nice to get into a game and play in those situations and kill penalties."

With Denis now gone and Desjardins injured (groin), it appears as though Loic Lacasse, who was just called up from Cincinnati last week, will get his first AHL start.

Head coach Don Lever said they are hoping to sign someone to a PTO to act as backup to Lacasse or that Desjardins will have to dress as a backup despite his injury.

The Bulldogs are in the midst of a six-game homestand and they won the first two. Tomorrow, they welcome back their former captain, Ajay Baines, now with the Iowa Chops.

Next week, they host Philadelphia on Tuesday and Lake Erie on Friday.

NOTES: In a pre-game ceremony tonight, the Bulldogs will honour Robert McMillan, their former team doctor who passed away earlier last year.

Doc McMillan was a fixture at Hamilton sporting events for decades and was a founder of the Hamilton Kilty Bees (now Red Wings) Hockey club.

gMcKay@thespec.com

905-526-3242

Syracuse Crunch at Hamilton Bulldogs

Hamilton, 20-11-2-0, third in the North Division.

Syracuse, 15-15-1-2, fifth in the North Division.

When: Tonight, 7:30.

Where: Copps Coliseum.

TV/Radio: TV-Cable 14. Radio-TALK820.

Season series: Second of eight meetings. Syracuse leads 1-0.

The last time: Syracuse won 5-4 at home on Saturday.

All time: Hamilton is 39-36-11-1-2.

Streaks: Hamilton, two-game winning. Syracuse, one-game losing.

Last 10 games: Hamilton 6-3-1-0. Syracuse 1-7-1-1.

Bulldogs' last game: A 4-0 win over Toronto at home on Tuesday.

Syracuse's last game: A 5-2 loss to Binghamton at home on Tuesday.

Bulldogs' next home game: Tomorrow at 7 p.m. against Iowa.

Syracuse's NHL affiliation: Columbus Blue Jackets.

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