All Habs Headlines: Canada’s Team, Bulldogs, De La Rose, Lefebvre, Archambault

 

► Montreal Canadiens: October 11

• Montreal Canadiens vs Philadelphia Flyers (Wells Fargo Center)
• Watch for our Game Day, Puck’s Prediction and Recap posts!

► Canadiens are Canada’s team

• According to a new poll, the Montreal Canadiens are Canada’s team. Forum Research, commissioned by CityNews, found that 23 per cent of Canadian hockey fans cheer for the Habs.
• By contrast, only 12 per cent cheer for the Toronto Maple Leafs and Vancouver Canucks.
• The percentages of support for the rest of the Canadian teams: Calgary Flames (7%), Winnipeg Jets (5%), Edmonton Oilers (5%), Ottawa Senators (3%).

► Lefebvre under scrutiny

• It’s been difficult to watch the Hamilton Bulldogs for the past two seasons. Scott Radley from the Spec describes the experience for fans this way, “Grab a box of room-temperature milk with a long-expired best-before date and take a long swig, thoroughly chewing each of the lumps as they go down. That face you’re making as you do it, that’s it exactly.”
• Inexplicably head coach Sylvain Lefebvre has, for the most part, escaped unscathed despite two of the worst seasons in Bulldogs history behind the bench.
• This season, having exhausted all other excuses, the focus will be on Lefebvre to install the systems and provide the motivation for the players to create offense. Read the full story here: Lefebvre’s goal? More goals —more wins.

► Archambault to Wild

• Former Canadiens prospect Olivier Archambault has been signed by the Iowa Wild (Minnesota Wild affiliate) of the AHL to a two-way contract (AHL / ECHL.)
• Archambault will start the season with the Alaska Aces of the ECHL.
• Archambault was originally selected by the Montreal Canadiens in the fourth round (108th overall) of the 2011 NHL Entry Draft.

► New home for Sopel

• Former Canadiens defenceman Brent Sopel didn’t have a long stay in Montreal, but he was a fan favorite.  Following his 19 game stint with the Habs in 2010-11, Sopel headed to the KHL playing with Metallurg Novokuznetsk and Salavat Yulaev Ufa.
• On Friday, Sopel signed a one year contract to play for the Chicago Wolves (St. Louis Blues affiliate) of the AHL.
• Sopel and forward Nigel Dawes were acquired from the Atlanta Thrashers in return for forward Ben Maxwell and a 4th round pick (Josiah Didier) on February 24. 2011.

► De La Rose checks out IKEA

• Habs prospect Jacob De La Rose had a very impressive training camp being the final cut by GM Marc Bergevin.
• Just ahead of the Bulldogs season opener on Saturday, De La Rose decided to get in touch with his Swedish roots with a trip to IKEA on Friday night.

See more

Just feeling the Swedish vibe at IKEA pic.twitter.com/L5r0v25uDl

— Jacob de la Rose (@JacobdelaRose) October 10, 2014

► Bulldogs season opener

• The Hamilton Bulldogs begin their AHL regular season on Saturday night in Rochester with a game against the Americans.
• You can check out their opening night roster as well as news about their captain for 2014-15 at Bulldogs Hockey Report.

► Importance of leadership

• Over the offseason, the Canadiens lost many veterans in the dressing room including Brian Gionta, Josh Gorges, Peter Budaj, George Parros, Danny Briere and Francis Bouillon.
• General manager Marc Bergevin, is looking for the younger guys to become leaders. “I think there’s a lot of leadership collectively as a team. We have a lot of guys who are ready for the opportunity to step up and take advantage of those leadership roles, and I think we’ve established who our leaders are going to be. (Andrei) Markov said it in training camp. We need 22 leaders for this team to be successful, and he’s exactly right.”

►  Bennett to miss 4-6 months

• Calgary Flames’ forward, Sam Bennett, suffered a shoulder injury nearing the end of last season. Bennett explains, “I guess maybe I should’ve come up sooner but I didn’t think it was that big of deal. I guess it is a bit bigger of a deal than I thought.”
• Bennett adds, “Obviously I want to be playing (in the NHL). That was my goal this year. I think ultimately this is going to be the best for my career. I think after I get this all healed up I’ll just be that much more confident and that much more stronger when I do get a chance to play.”
• Full story here.

 

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