All Habs GameDay: Tuesday November 8, 2011
On this day in hockey history… 1942 – Montreal Canadiens rookie Maurice Richard scored his first NHL goal in a 10-4 win over NY at the Forum in Montreal. Toe Blake scored twice for the Canadiens, to give him 100 in his NHL career.
EDMONTON OILERS vs MONTREAL CANADIENS
Bell Centre 7:30 p.m. TV: RDS, SNET-W, TSN-HABS
►Canadiens hockey tonight!
Projected line combinations:
MONTREAL CANADIENS
Forwards
Max Pacioretty – Tomas Plekanec – Brian Gionta
Mike Cammalleri – David Desharnais – Erik Cole
Andrei Kostitsyn – Lars Eller – Travis Moen | Lars Eller – Scott Gomez – Travis Moen
Mathieu Darche – Petteri Nokelainen – Michael Blunden
Defenseman
Josh Gorges – Yannick Weber
Hal Gill – Alexei Emelin
Jaroslav Spacek – P.K. Subban
Goaltenders
Carey Price – Peter Budaj
Scratches
Raphael Diaz
EDMONTON OILERS
Forwards
Taylor Hall – Ryan Nugent-Hopkins – Jordan Eberle
Ryan Smith – Shawn Horcoff – Ryan Jones
Magnus Paajarvi – Eric Belanger – Sam Gagner
Ben Eager – Anton Lander – Lennart Petrell
Defensemen
Tom Gilbert – Jeff Petry
Ladislav Smid – Colten Teubert
Corey Potter – Cam Barker
Goaltenders
Nikolai Khabibulin – Devan Dubyk
Alex Hemsky, who has been out of the line-up since October 13 with a shoulder injury, is a game-time decision.
► Injury update: Scott Gomez is practising with his team-mates.
Chris Campoli – hamstring tear
Scott Gomez – upper-body
Andrei Markov – knee
Ryan White – sports hernia
► Pacioretty gives back : Due to a vicious on-ice hit by Boston’s Zdeno Chara, the Canadiens Max Pacioretty has first-hand experience with the Traumatic Brain Injury Centre at the Montreal General Hospital. Pacioretty was grateful for the care he received so that he could return to the NHL to be one of the leading scorers on the Habs this season. On Monday, the young Canadiens power-forward announced the creation of the Pacioretty Foundation for brain trauma treatment and research with a specific goal to acquire a new Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) machine.
“Concussions are a big topic right now. We want to be leading research and development in the world, so people can find out answers to these brain problems and we can be the ones who raise awareness.” — Max Pacioretty
Read more: Pacioretty gives back to the hospital that helped him
► Fraser calls foul on refs: Two minutes to the Canadiens’ Michael Blunden for interference on a clean hit plus a bench minor for too-many men plus no instigator penalty for New York’s Ryan Callahan. How was that possible? That was the understandable reaction to some terrible officiating during the Rangers – Canadiens game last Saturday.
Now Habs fans have an expert in their corner. Former NHL referee Kerry Fraser disagrees with the penalty calls made by Tim Peel and Dean Morton. Here’s how Fraser would have called it:
MTL: 2-Minute Bench Minor Penalty – Too Many Men on the Ice
MTL: Mike Blunden – 5 Minutes Fighting
NYR: Ryan Callahan – 2 Minutes Instigating + 5 Minutes Fighting + 10 minutes misconduct
NYR: Brandon Dubinsky – 2 Minutes Roughing
MTL: Hal Gill – 2 Minutes Roughing
MTL: Petteri Nokelainen – 5 Minutes Fighting + Game Misconduct (secondary altercation)
NYR: Michael Sauer – 5 Minutes Fighting + Game Misconduct (secondary altercation)
Sound more reasonable?
Read more: Sorting out the 5-0n-3 from the Habs-Rangers game
► Vick talks chess : After his Philadelphia Eagles lost to the Chicago Bears 30-24 on Monday night, quarterback Michael Vick began speaking in chess terms by saying, “Gotta keep pushing the pawns, push the pawns and we use all the weapons that you have.” Vick continued, perhaps pushing the chess analogy a little too far.
“It’s never out of reach when your queen is on the board, and that’s [Eagles head coach] Andy Reid.” — Michael Vick