All Habs GameDay: Monday February 25, 2013
On this day in hockey history… 1990 – Eric Desjardins scored the 15,000th goal in Montreal Canadiens’ history, in the first period of a 6-5 win over the Blues, at the Forum.
GAMEDAY: Visiting the beat up Senators.
| Ottawa Senators 11-6-2 4th in the East |
Montreal Canadiens 12-4-2 1st in the East |
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Home Record: 8-1-2 |
Road Record: 4-1-1 Goals For: 52 Goals against: 39 PP percentage: 18.6 (10th) PK percentage: 82.5 (15th) |
| Scotiabank Place, Kanata, ON. 7:30 p.m. EST TV: RDS, TSN-HABS |
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PROJECTED LINE COMBINATIONS
(Updated following game day skate.)
| MONTREAL CANADIENS |
Rene Bourque and Petteri Nokelainen did not take the morning skate.
Forwards
Brandon Prust – Tomas Plekanec – Brian Gionta
Max Pacioretty – David Desharnais – Brendan Gallagher
Alex Galchenyuk – Lars Eller – Erik Cole
Travis Moen – Ryan White – Colby Armstrong
Defensemen
Andrei Markov – Alexei Emelin
Josh Gorges – Raphael Diaz
Francis Bouillon – P.K. Subban
Scratches
Rene Bourque, Tomas Kaberle, Yannick Weber
| OTTAWA SENATORS |
Peter Regin is in the lineup, Derek Grant is out.
Marc Methot is in the lineup, Mike Lundin is out.
Forwards
Jakob Silfverberg – Kyle Turris – Daniel Alfredsson
Colin Greening – Mika Zibanejad – Erik Condra
David Dziurzynski – Zack Smith – Chris Neil
Jim O’Brien – Peter Regin – Kaspars Daugavins
Defensemen
Patrick Wiercioch – Sergei Gonchar
Chris Phillips – Andre Benoit
Marc Methot – Erik Gryba
Scratches
Jared Cowen, Jason Spezza, Milan Michalek, Derek Grant, Guillaume Latendresse, Mike Lundin, Eric Karlsson, Craig Anderson
TOP SCORERS
| SENATORS | CANADIENS | ||
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Kyle Turris: 4G, 8A Daniel Alfredsson: 4G, 7A Erik Karlsson: 6G, 4A |
 Tomas Plekanec |
Tomas Plekanec: 8G, 5A Max Pacioretty: 4G, 9A Raphael Diaz (1G, 11A) & Alex Galchenyuk (3G, 9A) both have 12 points. |
PROJECTED GOALTENDERS
(Updated following game day skate.)
Ben Bishop is the confirmed starter for the Senators.
Carey Price is the confirmed starter for the Canadiens.
| SENATORS | CANADIENS | ||
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Record: 3-2-0 GAA : 2.47 (20th) Sv%: .921 (13th) SO: 0 EV GA/60: 2.47 (38th) |
 Carey PriceCONFIRMED |
Record: 10-3-1 (1st in wins) GAA : 1.97 (7th) Sv%: .923 (12th) SO: 2 (3rd) EV GA/60: 1.28 (3rd) |
GAMEDAY: All Habs Headlines
► Road trip begins:
- The Montreal Canadiens are beginning a road trip that will see them play eight of the next nine games on the road.
- The Canadiens first play on the road against the Ottawa Senators and Toronto Maple Leafs.
- They’ll return at home for a quick game against the Pittsburgh Penguins.
- They then go on the road for a five-game stretch that will see them play the Boston Bruins, New York Islanders, Carolina Hurricanes, Tampa Bay Lightning and Florida Panthers.
- In total, between now and the end of the month of March, the Habs will play 11 of 16 games on the road.
► Carey Price keeps chugging along (like a train, not beer):
- Carey Price continues to impress this season.
- With his last shutout win against the New York Rangers, Price remains first in the league in total wins and has now moved third in total shutouts, behind both Pekka Rinne (Nashville Predators) and Mike Smith (Phoenix Coyotes) who both have three shutouts.
- Price also ranks third amongst all goaltenders in even-strength goals against per 60-minutes of play, with an average of 1.28.
- To add to his top-10 stats, he also ranks seventh in the league in goals against average, with a 1.97 average.
► Alex Galchenyuk continues to impress:
- Alex Galchenyuk is turning out to be everything we were promised.
- In the Canadiens’ last game against the Rangers, Galchenyuk picked up a pretty pass from Lars Eller before cutting to the net, seeing his puck pop up off of Dan Girardi‘s stick, only to land into the net behind Martin Biron.
- So used to often seeing the Canadiens forwards hug the boards in those situations before throwing a pass out towards the slot, it was refreshing to see Galchenyuk cut hard to the net and he was rewarded for it.
- Galchenyuk and Eller seem to enjoy playing on the same line, and had the following to say about each other after the Rangers game on Saturday.
Eller on Galchenyuk:
“We seem to be clicking really well. We’re feeding off each other and making room for each other on the ice. I really enjoy playing with him.”Galchenyuk on Eller:
“We’re playing pretty good. We seem to know where each other is going. It’s fun to play with him. He’s big, fast and strong, so it’s not hard to play with him.”
- Galchenyuk now has three goals and nine assists on the season for a total of 12 points and this ranks him both third on his team and amongst all rookies in the league.
► The Senators plagued with injuries:
- You want injuries? The Ottawa Senators are probably in the worst injury situation of this league at the moment, and for now, they’ve shown no signs of wanting to bow out in surrender.
- Top goaltender, Craig Anderson is out. Top defenceman, Erik Karlsson is out. One of the Sens’ top forwards, Jason Spezza is out. Add to this list, Marc Methot, Guillaume Latendresse, Milan Michalek, Peter Regin and Jared Cowen and you have a team that’s in a pretty bad situation.
- Goaltender, Ben Bishop, who won the Senators’ last game between the pipes and successfully saved the previous win after Anderson left with his injury, had this to say about the current situation:
“I was lucky enough to have the same type of experience last year. Andy went down and I got to play seven games in a row, so I’m looking forward to the opportunity again. It’s nice to have the experience this time.”
“When one guy has gone down another guy has stepped up. I don’t think that’s going to stop.”
“I got to play Toronto and Montreal last year and both of those are big rivals, last year we played Toronto here. It was a lot of fun. They’re big games. You don’t look too much into the rivalry you just look at it as another game that obviously have a lot more excitement in the crowd.”
“You just have to go out there and play your game. Obviously you watch Craig and pick up some things. He’s the best goalie in the league right now so you try to watch and pick up some things from him. You don’t try to be like him at all, you have to do your own thing and just go and play.”
► 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 Toronto Maple Leafs, Pittsburgh Penguins, Boston Bruins and New York Islanders upcoming, click the link to find the best selection of Montreal Canadiens tickets.
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- All Habs Mailbag: Tinordi, Kristo, Armstrong, Lineup Choices, Entry Draft
- CH : La saison 2011-2012, une série de malchances?
- Comic Strip: On the Menu
- In Brandon We Prust
- State of the Habs, Part 4 – Games 13-16: Perfection
(Feature Photo: John Morstad)
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