GameDay: Lightning vs Habs Preview, Lineups, Defense, Rookies

All Habs GameDay: Thursday April 18, 2013

On this day in hockey history… In 1959 – The Montreal Canadiens won their 4th consecutive Stanley Cup, defeating the Toronto Maple Leafs 4 games to 1.

PROJECTED LINE COMBINATIONS AND GOALTENDERS
(Will be updated following game day skate.)

TOP SCORERS

► Where has the defence gone? 

• Much has been said in the past week about Carey Price’s play, allowing three goals on four shots before being pulled after only 10:25 against the Maple Leafs before giving up six goals on 29 shots against the Philadelphia Flyers in only 40 minutes of play.
• In the last game against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Wednesday, Budaj got the start but gave up three goals on nine shots before being pulled after the first period, and Price went on to stop 17 of the 20 shots he faced.
• Sure, we can say the goaltending needs to be better, i’m sure both would tell you the same, but the whole damn team needs to wake the hell up.
• The Canadiens have been terrible in these past three games and have done nothing to help their goaltenders through this mess.
• Missed coverages, giveaways, defensemen getting caught up the ice, odd-man rushes, everything has been happening.
• The Canadiens are clearly not playing like the team they were in the first 35ish or so games, and they only have five games left to turn it around and enter the playoffs on a positive note.

► I predict a 4-3 Canadiens win:

• Thursday, the Montreal Canadiens and Tampa Bay Lightning will be playing their third and final match-up of the season against each other.
• In the previous two match-ups, the Canadiens had come out victorious by the score of 4-3, with the former ending in a shootout.
• Interesting to note that when they first met back on February 12, the Canadiens had jumped out to a 3-0 lead after two periods, before the Lightning scored three third period goals to push the game to a shootout. When they met again on March 9, it was the Lightning who had a 3-1 lead after two periods, but the Canadiens scored three in the third and came out with the win.
• Brian Gionta has the most points against the Lightning this season for the Canadiens, with two goals and an assist in two games.
• For the Lightning, their highest producers against the Habs have been Victor Hedman & Sami Salo with two goals and an assist and Martin St Louis with three assists.
• Another interesting note, only the Pittsburgh Penguins have scored more goals than the Tampa Bay Lightning in the Eastern Conference this season. Good team to get your defensive groove back.

► Rookie Watch:

• Wednesday night, Alex Galchenyuk found the back of the net while Brendan Gallagher was held off the scoresheet in the 6-4 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins.
• Gallagher totals 12 goals and 11 assists for 23 points on the season.
• Galchenyuk now has 7 goals and 15 assists for 22 points on the season.
• Respectively, they rank fourth and sixth for total points amongst rookies in the league.

Top 10 NHL Rookies / Total Points

1. Jonathan Huberdeau (FLA): 13G, 14A, 27PTS
2. Cory Conacher (TBL): 10G, 16A, 26PTS
3. Nail Yakupov (EDM): 10G, 14A, 25PTS
4. Brendan Gallagher (MTL): 13G, 11A, 24PTS
5. Brandon Saad (CHI): 9G, 15A, 24PTS
6. Alex Galchenyuk (MTL): 8G, 15A, 23PTS
7. Justin Schultz (EDM): 6G, 15A, 21PTS
8. Mike Zibanejab (OTT): 7G, 13A, 20PTS
9. Alex Killorn (TBL): 7G, 11A, 18PTS
10. Patrick Wiercioch (OTT): 4G, 14A, 18PTS

Carey Price:

• “We’ve got to get back to what was making us successful the start of the season. The last three games we haven’t gotten off to the best starts,” explained Carey Price. “They beat us right off the bat and got the ball rolling.”

Michel Therrien (who was brief when answering questions):

• “We tried to change the momentum, and it didn’t work,” responded Michel Therrien, when asked about his decision to send Carey Price into the game after the first intermission.