All Habs GameDay: Monday April 15, 2013

On this day in hockey history… In 1993 – Alexander Mogilny scored his 75th and 76th goals of the season, which tied him with Winnipeg Jets’ rookie Teemu Selanne for the 1992-93 goal scoring championship.

PROJECTED LINE COMBINATIONS AND GOALTENDERS
(Will be updated following game day skate.)

TOP SCORERS

► The Canadiens need to bounce back: 

• After a devastating 5-1 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs Saturday night, the Montreal Canadiens will look to bounce back as they face-off against the struggling Philadelphia Flyers on Monday night at the Bell Centre.
• This season, the Canadiens won the first match-up by the score of 4-1 back on February 16 at the Bell Centre. David Desharnais, Tomas Plekanec, Brendan Gallagher  and Rene Bourque had each picked up a goal while the latter two had also added an assist for two points on the night. Brian Gionta and Max Pacioretty had each picked up two assists. Danny Briere had been the lone scorer for the Flyers.
• In the second match-up on April 3 in Philadelphia, the Flyers had come out victorious by the score of 5-3. Sean Couturier, Simon Gagne, Wayne Simmonds, Erik Gustafsson and Jakub Voracek had scored for the Flyers while Alexei Emelin, Brandon Prust and David Desharnais had scored for the Habs.
• Both teams won on home ice, Desharnais has scored in each game against the Flyers and Pacioretty has four assists over the two games against them so far.
• Monday will the the final match-up of the season between both teams.

► Not since Bernie Parent:

• The hot topic in Philadelphia this weekend was (what else?) goaltending. It would appear that the writing is on the wall for Ilya Brygalov.  The trade deadline acquisition of Steve Mason from the Columbus Blue  Jackets and subsequent contract extension is an obvious signal. And don’t expect Mason to be content with a backup role.
• Steve Mason: “I’m not sure what my role is right now. I haven’t really been told. And to me, that’s not my main focus. My job is to come in here and become the goaltender that the organization believes I can be: And that’s to be a No. 1 goaltender. I’m fully prepared to put the work in.”
• Further to the point, Hockey Night in Canada’s Elliotte Friedman reported on Saturday that the Flyers were front-runners to sign UFA college goalie Eric Hartzell. He backstopped the Quinnipiac Bobcats to a number one ranking before losing out in the NCAA national championship game to the Yale Bulldogs.
• Despite his team being upset in the final, Hartzell was named ECAC Player of the Year and Goalie of the Year. Hartzell had attended the Flyers development camp last summer.
• But alas, shoring up their goalie ranks was not in the cards for the Flyers as Hartzell signed a one-year entry contract with the Pittsburgh Penguins on Sunday.  Hey, the Flyers still have Cal Heeter in the system.
• On Monday, as if to add insult, the NHL announced that Columbus goalie Sergei Bobrovsky was named first star of the week. Bobrovsky had a record of 3-0-0 with one shutout, a 0.97 goals against average and a .971 save percentage. Bobrovsky was the netminder who was shipped off to Columbus by the Flyers when they decided to go with Bryzgalov.

► Rookie Watch:

• Saturday night against the Leafs, Alex Galchenyuk was held off the scoresheet and his streak of continuous games with at least a point came to a stop at five. As for Brendan Gallagher, he had an assist in the 5-1 loss.
• Gallagher totals 12 goals and 11 assists for 23 points on the season.
• Galchenyuk has 6 goals and 15 assists for 21 points on the season.
• Respectively, they rank third and sixth for total points amongst rookies in the league.

Top 10 NHL Rookies / Total Points

1. Jonathan Huberdeau (FLA): 13G, 14A, 27PTS
2. Cory Conacher (TBL): 10G, 15A, 25PTS
3. Brendan Gallagher (MTL): 12G, 11A, 23PTS
4. Nail Yakupov (EDM): 10G, 13A, 23PTS
5. Brandon Saad (CHI): 9G, 14A, 23PTS
6. Alex Galchenyuk (MTL): 6G, 15A, 21PTS
7. Justin Schultz (EDM): 6G, 14A, 20PTS
8. Mike Zibanejab (OTT): 6G, 13A, 19PTS
9. Alex Killorn (TBL): 7G, 11A, 18PTS
10. Jakob Silfverberg (OTT): 8G, 9A, 17PTS

Coach Michel Therrien:

• “[Price] is a good kid. He cares. He’s had a good season. He’s got character. He’s gonna bounce back. I have no doubt.”
• “There’s lots of times our goalie was fantastic for us this year and we were fair in front of him. We still found a way to win.”
• Is there a Habs – Leafs rivalry? “I don’t think so. You build a rivalry in the playoffs. We haven’t played those guys for a long time in the playoffs. I can’t say it’s a huge rivalry because the last time was 1979. That’s a long time.”

Carey Price:

• “Obviously there was two [goals] there that I wanted back. It’s not a very pleasant feeling when you know that you let your teammates down. I think that’s the hardest thing.”

Brian Gionta:

• “Carey’s given us a chance to win every night. It’s not Carey’s fault. We have to do a better job of protecting him. He’s a proud guy and has won us a lot of games. By no means was this his fault.”