All Habs GameDay: Saturday March 23, 2013

On this day in hockey history… 1944 – Playing in his second career playoff game, Montreal’s Maurice Richard scored all five goals to lead the Canadiens to a 5-1 victory over Toronto, in Game Two of the Stanley Cup Semi-Finals.

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

Michael Blunden was recalled from the Hamilton Bulldogs and will play in Ryan White’s (lower body) place.
Rene Bourque is skating with the team but will not play Saturday.
Brandon Prust continues to recover skating with Pierre Allard, Habs strength and conditioning coach.
Jeff Halpern has been claimed off waivers.

Forwards

Michael Ryder – Tomas Plekanec – Brian Gionta
Max Pacioretty – David Desharnais – Brendan Gallagher
Alex Galchenyuk – Lars Eller – Colby Armstrong
Travis Moen – Gabriel Dumont- Michael Blunden

Defensemen

Andrei Markov – Alexei Emelin
Josh Gorges – P.K. Subban
Francis Bouillon – Jarred Tinordi

Goalies

Carey Price, Peter Budaj

Scratches

Rene Bourque (concussion), Raphael Diaz (concussion), Yannick Weber (knee), Tomas Kaberle, Brandon Prust (shoulder separation), Ryan White (lower body)

Thomas Vanek is expected to return to the lineup.
Nathan Gerbe is back in the lineup.
Drew Stafford and John Scott are healthy scratches.

Forwards

Thomas Vanek – Tyler Ennis – Ville Leino
Steve Ott – Cody Hodgson – Jason Pominville
Marcus Foligno – Kevin Porter – Brian Flynn
Nathan Gerbe – Jochen Hecht – Patrick Kaleta

Defensemen

Christian Ehrhoff – Mike Weber
Tyler Myers – Robyn Regehr
Mark Pysyk – Jordan Leopold

Goalies

Ryan Miller – Jhonas Enroth

Scratches

Andrej Sekera, Alexander Sulzer, Drew Stafford, John Scott

TOP SCORERS

 PROJECTED GOALTENDERS
(Updated following game day skate.)

No updates at this time.

► Carey Price improves on his season: 

• This past week, Carey Price has had three starts and over this period, has lead the Montreal Canadiens to a record of 2-0-1.
• Over this same period, he has held a goals against average of 1.97, and save percentage of .926 per cent.
• What’s most impressive is that in those three games, he’s combined for an even-strength save percentage of .935 per cent.
• He again falls tied for the league lead in wins with 16, same as Pittsburgh Penguins goaltender, Marc-Andre Fleury.
• He’s pretty good that Carey Price.

► Subban keeps finding the back of the net:

• P.K. Subban is taking a serious option on the Norris trophy this season. Yes, he is.
• On Thursday against the Islanders, Subban found the back of the net twice and now has 9 goals and 13 assists on the season.
• He’s tied for third in goals and total points on the Canadiens’ roster.
• Amongst all NHL defencemen, Subban ranks first in goals with 9 on the season, two more than Brian Campbell who trails in second place.
• As for total points amongst NHL defencemen, Subban is tied for third with Niklas Kronwall (Detroit Red Wings), both having 22 points.
• Kris Letang (Pittsburgh Penguins) leads the league with 28 points and Ryan Sutter (Minnesota Wild) trails in second with 24 points.

► Max Pacioretty takes back the Canadiens’ lead in total points:

• With two assists on Thursday against the Islanders, Max Pacioretty took back the lead from Michael Ryder, for having most points amongst Montreal Canadiens’ players.
• Tied before this game, Pacioretty’s two points put him ahead of Ryder who did manage to pick up a goal against the Islanders.
• Pacioretty now has 25 points on the season (9 goals, 16 assists) while Ryder trails with 24 points (9 goals, 15 assists).

► Colby Armstrong in a drought:

• After obtaining his first and second goals of the season against the New Jersey Devils and Buffalo Sabres, Colby Armstrong was held off the scoresheet against the New York Islanders and we are all left to wonder, “Where did all the scoring go?”

► Rookie Watch:

• Thursday night against the Islanders, Brendan Gallagher picked up a goal and he now has 9 goals and 9 assists for 18 points on the season.
• Alex Galchenyuk was left off the scoresheet and currently totals 3 goals and 11 assists for 14 points on the season.
• Respectively, they rank third and tied for seventh amongst rookies in the league.

Top 10 NHL Rookies / Total Points

1. Cory Conacher (TBL): 8G, 14A, 22PTS
   
2. Jonathan Huberdeau (FLA): 12G, 8A, 20PTS
3. Brendan Gallagher (MTL): 9G, 9A, 18PTS
4. Nail Yakupov (EDM): 6G, 9A, 15PTS
5. Justin Schultz (EDM): 5G, 10A, 15PTS
6. Brandon Saad (CHI): 4G, 11A, 15PTS
7. Vladimir Tarasenko (STL): 6G, 8A, 14PTS
8. Patrick Wiercioch (OTT): 4G, 10A, 14 PTS
9. Alex Galchenyuk (MTL): 3G, 11A, 14PTS
10. Jake Muzzin (LAK): 6G, 7A, 13PTS

Brendan Gallagher on how the Canadiens finished strong:

“It’s a good feeling to know that when we’re in the middle of a game, we’re able to come out that strong when we need to,” said Brendan Gallagher. “It would have been good if we could have done the same thing in the first and second periods, but when the coach puts you on the ice in an important situation in the third, you just want to try and find a way to contribute however you can. As a team, we played a great third period,” he added. “I think it was an excellent road game for us.”

P.K. Subban on how the win wasn’t an easy one:

“It was a tough game for sure. Especially when it’s a 2-2 game like that and you go up early in the third period and then you have 16 minutes to grind away – it’s not easy. We were happy to get the fourth goal, it was big for us and kind of set the tone for the rest of the game and then we got the fifth one and that was the end of it.” shared Subban. “I thought we played well,” he added. “but we definitely have to give our goaltender Pricey credit for shutting the door.”

Carey Price on how the team wanted to rebound after the previous loss:

“This was a big win for us. We wanted to rebound after that last game. I don’t think we played particularity well in those first two periods,” he admitted. “but we came out really strong in the third. We’re really comfortable in tight games when we come out in the third period. We have a group with an incredible will and work ethic that allows us to overcome tough situations.”

Carey Price on the team’s goal production:

“Well… the guys score a lot of goals in practice,” he confirmed. “So no, it’s not really that hard for me to believe that they’re able to score that much.”