All Habs GameDay: Saturday November 12, 2011
On this day in hockey history… 1980 – Montreal’s Guy Lafleur became the Canadiens’ third all-time scorer with a five-point game, bringing his career total to 966 – one more than Maurice Richard. Montreal won 8-4 at Los Angeles.
MONTREAL CANADIENS vs NASHVILLE PREDATORS
Bridgestone Arena 7:00 p.m. EST | TV: RDS, CBC
►Canadiens hockey tonight!
Projected line combinations:
MONTREAL CANADIENS
Forwards
Travis Moen – Tomas Plekanec – Brian Gionta
Max Pacioretty – David Desharnais – Erik Cole
Mike Cammalleri – Lars Eller – Aaron Palushaj
Scott Gomez – Petteri Nokelainen – Mathieu Darche
Defenseman
Josh Gorges – P.K. Subban
Jaroslav Spacek – Yannick Weber
Hal Gill – Raphael Diaz
Goaltenders
Peter Budaj – Carey Price
Scratches
Alexei Emelin
Andrei Kostitsyn has a lower-body injury and will not play. Mike Cammalleri will play. Peter Budaj will start in goal.
NASHVILLE PREDATORS
Forwards
Colin Wilson – Craig Smith – Patric Hornqvist
Sergei Kostitsyn – Mike Fisher – Martin Erat
Matt Halischuk – Jerred Smithson – Jordin Tootoo
Niclas Bergfors – Blake Geoffrion – Brian McGrattan
Defensemen
Ryan Suter – Shea Weber
Kevin Klein – Jonathon Blum
Francis Bouillon – Jack Hillen
Goaltenders
Pekka Rinne – Anders Lindback
Nick Spaling and David Legwand are out with injuries.
► Injury update: Scott Gomez was cleared to play on Thursday and will return to the line-up against Nashville.
Mike Cammalleri – lower-body injury
Chris Campoli – hamstring tear
Andrei Kostitsyn – lower-body injury
Andrei Markov – knee
Ryan White – sports hernia
► Is Preds’ Smith top rookie? : Who is your favourite NHL rookie? Ryan Nugent-Hopkins of the Edmonton Oilers earned rookie-of-the-month honours for October. Prior to the start of the season TSN’s Bob McKenzie boldly predicted that Philadelphia’s Matt Read would be walking away with the Calder Trophy as the NHL’s rookie-of-the-year. It’s early but I’d keep your eye on Gabriel Landeskog of the Colorado Avalanche who has been very impressive so far.
Dirk Hoag of On The Forecheck looks at how Nashville’s Craig Smith stacks up to the likes of Landeskog, Nugent-Hopkins, Sean Couturier and Luke Adam.
| Player | Scoring | Shooting % | 5-5 TOI | 5-5 Shots/60 | 5-5 Pts/60 | 5-5 Team Shoot % | 5-4 TOI | 5-4 Pts/60 | 5-4 GF On/60 | Team GF/60 |
| Craig Smith, NSH | 7G 7A | 15.6 | 12.0 | 10.6 | 3.21 | 14.1 | 2.9 | 5.79 | 8.7 | 5.4 |
| Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, EDM | 7G 6A | 24.1 | 12.9 | 6.6 | 2.16 | 8.7 | 3.4 | 6.93 | 8.1 | 6.4 |
| Luke Adam, BUF | 4G 7A | 12.1 | 12.2 | 8.3 | 3.49 | 10.5 | 2.3 | 1.84 | 3.7 | 6.9 |
| Sean Couturier, PHI | 5G 3A | 20.8 | 9.0 | 7.9 | 3.08 | 12.6 | 0.4 | 0.00 | 0.0 | 7.0 |
| Gabriel Landeskog, COL | 4G 4A | 8.5 | 14.4 | 13.8 | 1.29 | 5.6 | 1.6 | 4.48 | 6.7 | 10.9 |
Read more: How does Craig Smith stack up against other top NHL rookies?
►Stick-swinging in the OHL: Nick Cousins of the Soo Greyhounds, a draft pick of the Philadelphia Flyers, is one of the biggest agitators in the Ontario Hockey League (OHL.) As time expired in a Greyhounds 4-3 victory, Cousins taunted London Knights players. Ryan Rupert of London responded by swinging his stick to the mid-section of Cousins. A brawl erupted as players coming off the benches joined in.
Video posted to You Tube by HockeyWebCaster
