All Habs GameDay: Thursday November 10, 2011

On this day in hockey history… 1934 – Canadiens’ Armand Mondou became the first player in NHL history to take a penalty shot. He missed in his attempt against George Hainsworth of Toronto. Three days later Ralph Bowman of St. Louis scored the first penalty shot goal in NHL history.

MONTREAL CANADIENS vs PHOENIX COYOTES

Jobing.com Arena  9:00 p.m. EST TV: RDS

►Canadiens hockey tonight!

Projected line combinations:

MONTREAL CANADIENS

Forwards
Max Pacioretty – Tomas Plekanec – Brian Gionta
Mathieu Darche – David Desharnais – Erik Cole
Travis Moen – Lars Eller – Aaron Palushaj
Yannick Weber – Petteri Nokelainen – Michael Blunden

Defenseman
Josh Gorges – P.K. Subban
Hal Gill – Raphael Diaz
Jaroslav Spacek – Alexei Emelin

Goaltenders
Carey Price – Peter Budaj

Andrei Kostitsyn did not participate in the morning skate.  Mike Cammalleri will not play with a lower-body injury.  Scott Gomez has been cleared by doctors but will not play.  Carey Price will start in goal.

PHOENIX COYOTES

Forwards
Lauri Korpikoski – Martin Hanzal – Shane Doan
Ray Whitney – Boyd Gordon – Radim Vrbata
Taylor Pyatt – Cal O’Reilly – Mikkel Boedker
Raffi Torres – Kyle Chipchura – Patrick O’Sullivan

Defensemen
Keith Yandle – Derek Morris
Rostislav Klesla – David Schlemko
Oliver Ekman-Larsson – Adrian Aucoin

Goaltenders
Mike Smith – Jason LaBarbera

Martin Hanzal, who has been out for the past two games with a lower-body injury, is expected to return to the Coyotes line-up.  Daymond Langkow may sit.

► Injury update:  Scott Gomez and Andrei Kostitsyn are day-to-day.  The pair along with Andrei Markov are with the team on the two-game road trip.  Chris Campoli began skating on his own this week.

Mike Cammalleri – lower-body injury
Chris Campoli – hamstring tear
Andrei Kostitsyn – lower-body injury
Scott Gomez – upper-body
Andrei Markov –  knee
Ryan White – sports hernia

► Freeze frame Philly : Last night, during the Philadelphia – Tampa Bay game the Flyers held the puck in their own zone in an attempt to draw a non-existent Lightning forecheck.  It happened several times during the game and sent fans, media and NHL players into a tizzy on Twitter.

Cries of ‘Tampa is destroying the flow of the game and stifling offense’ came from one constituency (which included many NHL players.)

‘Philadelphia has no answer for the 1-3-1 and is making a mockery of the game by refusing to advance the puck’ came from the other side.

Of course both sides are overreacting.

What we witnessed was the chess match of two thinking coaches.  Both were focussed on breaking down the strategies of the opposition.  It’s rather refreshing given the contrast of the head coach in Montreal who opens the bench door and calls players numbers.

Tampa’s Guy Boucher tried to use his home-ice advantage to establish the 1-3-1 while facing the high-powered Flyers offense with two defensemen out of the line-up. Philadelphia’s Peter Laviolette tried to use the pressure of Tampa’s home crowd against the Lightning.  Who could blink first?

There was a knee-jerk reaction by some to create new rules: force teams to forecheck or put a shot clock on exiting the zone.  Both ideas are silly.  Wisely, the NHL sent a message to its on-ice officials to steer clear of interfering with coaching strategies.

Boucher will continue to use the trap at times, and opposition coaches will use Laviolette’s template to design breakouts to beat it.

The NHL should focus on modifying rules that help with puck movement, such as eliminating the trapezoid zone, but need not create a rule to address this anomaly.

►THN meets Leblanc: Danielle Emanuele of the Hockey News interviews Hamilton Bulldogs rookie Louis Leblanc.

VIDEO: Canadiens prospect Louis Leblanc comfortable being a rookie

► Gallagher takes on new foe : Canadiens’ prospect Brendan Gallagher lost his grandfather to prostate cancer a year ago, prompting him to take up the fight by raising funds for research.

VIDEO: Giant’s Fight Against Cancer

►Branch rules: OHL Commissioner David Branch gets it. This week he levied a 20-game suspension to Niagara Ice Dog’s Tom Kuhnhackl for his hit on Kitchener Rangers defenceman Ryan Murphy.

Murphy received a concussion on the play and has not returned to the Ranger’s line-up.

Read more: Ice Dog player gets 20 games for hit on Rangers’ Murphy