All Habs GameDay: Saturday March 9, 2013
On this day in hockey history… 1963 – Montreal’s Lou Fontinato missed on a check against New York’s Vic Hadfield, hit the boards head first, and broke his back. Fontinato recovered, but never played hockey again.
GAMEDAY: The struggling Lightning.
| TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING 10-13-1 13th in the East |
MONTREAL CANADIENS 15-5-4 1st in the East |
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Home Record: 6-5-1 |
Road Record: 7-2-2 Goals For: 75 Goals against: 61 PP percentage: 19.8 (9th) PK percentage: 82.1 (14th) |
| Tampa Bay Times Forum, Tampa, FL. 7:00 p.m. EST TV: CBC, RDS |
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PROJECTED LINE COMBINATIONS
(Will be updated following game day skate.)
| MONTREAL CANADIENS |
Greg Pateryn will wear No. 64 for the Canadiens.
Gabriel Dumont was centering the 4th line during the game-day skate.
Forwards
Michael Ryder – Tomas Plekanec – Brian Gionta
Max Pacioretty – David Desharnais – Brendan Gallagher
Alex Galchenyuk – Lars Eller – Brandon Prust
Travis Moen – Gabriel Dumont – Colby Armstrong
Defensemen
Andrei Markov – Alexei Emelin
Josh Gorges – P.K. Subban
Francis Bouillon – Greg Pateryn
Goalies
Carey Price, Peter Budaj
Scratches
Rene Bourque (concussion), Raphael Diaz (concussion), Yannick Weber (lower body), Ryan White, Petteri Nokelainen, Tomas Kaberle
| TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING |
No updates at this time.
Forwards
Cory Conacher – Steven Stamkos – Teddy Purcell
Alex Killorn – Vincent Lecavalier – Martin St. Louis
Ondrej Palat – Tom Pyatt – Ryan Malone
B.J. Crombeen – Nate Thompson – Pierre-Cedric Labrie
Defensemen
Victor Hedman – Matt Carle
Keith Aulie – Eric Brewer
Brian Lee – Marc-Andre Bergeron
Goalies
Anders Lindback – Cedrick Desjardins
Scratches
Benoit Pouliot (upper body), Mathieu Garon (upper body), Sami Salo, Adam Hall, Brendan Mikkelson, Mattias Ohlund, Matt Taormina
TOP SCORERS
| LIGHTNING | CANADIENS | ||
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Steven Stamkos: 18G, 17A, 35PTS Martin St Louis: 6G, 25A, 31PTS Teddy Purcell: 4G, 17A, 21PTS |
 Max Pacioretty |
Max Pacioretty: 8G, 12A, 20PTS Michael Ryder: 6G, 12A, 18PTS Tomas Plekanec: 10G, 5A, 15PTS |
PROJECTED GOALTENDERS
(Updated following game day skate.)
Former Hamilton Bulldog Cedrick Desjardins will get the start for Tampa.
| LIGHTNING | CANADIENS | ||
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Record: 0-0-0 GAA: n/a Sv%: n/a SO: n/a EV GA/60: n/a |
 Carey PriceCONFIRMED |
Record: 12-4-3 (1st in wins) GAA : 2.33 (14th) Sv%: .912 (20th) SO: 2 (tied for 4th) EV GA/60: 1.76 (6th) |
GAMEDAY: All Habs Headlines
► The Struggling Lightning:
- The Tampa Bay Lightning are struggling at the midway point of the season, sitting 13th in the east, five points out of a playoff spot.
- Some might lead you to believe that there’s plenty of time remaining but in the Lightning’s current situation, only when the Buffalo Sabres and Florida Panthers win do teams ahead of them not pick up points, with all games being played within the conferences.
- The Lightning have 82 goals for on the season, second most in the league behind the Pittsburgh Penguins who have 86, so scoring goals isn’t the issue, preventing other teams from scoring on them however is a whole other story as you can see by Lindback’s stats.
- The Lightning have lost their last game and are 3-7-0 in their last ten games.
- “We’re in the business of doing the impossible, and that’s what it’s going to have to be.” — Head coach Guy Boucher on making the playoffs
► Prust continues to surprise:
- Brandon Prust continues to surprise with the Canadiens, picking up another three points (1G, 2A) this past Thursday when the Habs picked up the win against the Carolina Hurricanes.
- Prust now has four goals and nine points on the season but people should not expect this to continue all season.
- His team high PDO of 1068 will undoubtedly regress, and the same goes for his shooting percentage which currently stands above fourteen percent.
- In any case, he’s proven to be a valuable player to this team.
- Prust comment on his first assist, where he dished out a beautiful backhand saucer-pass to Josh Gorges who buried it on the pinch.
“Backhand sauce, my specialty. I just saw Gorges streaking to the net and I knew he had his guy beat, so I threw it towards him and he was able to bury it.”
- Michel Therrien also commented on Prust’s big night.
“We already knew he was a leader. We knew he was a guy that showed up to play each and every night. Right now he’s getting the chance, maybe for the first time in his career, to show that he can really play hockey. We have him playing on the first three lines, we give him a lot of responsibility, not only defensively, but offensively as well. At the moment he’s playing the best hockey of his career.”
► Weber in and immediately out.
- Yannick Weber barely had a chance to make his presence felt this past Thursday against the Canes, going down with a knee injury after playing only 7:35.
- Terrible news for Weber who was only playing in his second game of the season.
- Greg Pateryn has been called up from Hamilton, but for now, Kaberle is expected to be back in the lineup with Weber’s injury.
► Carey Price bounces back.
- After giving up 12 goals in his last two games, Carey Price bounced back against the Hurricanes, stopping 41 of 43 shots and picking up the win.
- The game was great for Price’s confidence, he who kept his team in the game, especially in the second period when the Habs were dominated 21-5 in shots
- He also stopped Eric Staal on a penalty shot.
► Puck’s take:
- Need to know who will win tonight? Click the link to watch Puck the Bunny’s prediction.
► Habs Tickets:
- With a game against the Florida Panthers, Ottawa Senators and New Jersey Devils upcoming, click the link to find the best selection of Montreal Canadiens tickets.
► New at All Habs Hockey Magazine and Hockey Pub:
- Moen Disappoints, Habs Left Looking for Toughness
- Le CH est bien en selle à la mi-saison
- Grands Titres: Pateryn, Getzlaf, Prust, Réaménagement
- State of the Habs, Part 6 – Games 21-24: No Defense, No Problem
- Press Release: Habs Recall Defenseman Greg Pateryn from Hamilton
- Carey Price Robs ‘Canes Justin Faulk
- All Habs Mailbag: Defencemen, Bell, Markov, Gionta, Goaltending, Realignment,Trades
- Catching the Torch: Archambault Attacks
- Tokarski, Tenute Lead Bulldogs Over Heat [with AUDIO]
- Les Islanders : la nouvelle bête noire du Canadien?
- Bruins Hypocrisy on Display [VIDEO]
- Danny Kristo: Committed to a Championship [VIDEO]
- Ode to Claude: The Ironing is Delicious [VIDEO]
(Feature Photo: John Morstad)
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