All Habs Headlines: Thursday February 11, 2016 |
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On this day in hockey history… 1925 — Georges Vezina became the first goaltender in Montreal Canadiens’ history to win 100 career NHL games, as the Canadiens won 10-3 over the visiting Ottawa Senators. 1971 — Montreal’s Jean Beliveau scored three goals, including the 500th of his career, and added an assist as the Canadiens beat the Minnesota North Stars 6-2, at the Forum. It was Beliveau’s 18th (and final) NHL hat trick. 1988 — Edmonton’s Wayne Gretzky scored a goal and two assists to give him 101 points, making 1987-88 his ninth 100+ point season, a new NHL record. |
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► Practice/Travel day!
- The Canadiens practiced on Thursday before heading to Buffalo for their Friday night game against the Sabres.
- Surprising to most fans, the duo of Max Pacioretty and David Desharnais has remained together with very little production. Michel Therrien provided this explanation, “Guys like Pacioretty and Desharnais have had success in the past together. I still have faith that they can do it again.”
- With Brian Flynn out for an extended period, Jacob De la Rose has been recalled from the IceCaps.
- Ben Scrivens is scheduled to get the start in goal on Friday. Scrivens has won three straight bringing his record to 3-4-0.
- Missed the last Habs game? Check out our game review here: RECAP | Lightning – Canadiens: Plekanec Leads Habs to Third Straight Win
- The IceCaps hosted the Utica Comets on Friday night. Here is the game review: RECAP | Crunch – IceCaps: Celebrating Back-to-Back Wins
Forward lines, defense pairings and goaltenders at practice on Thursday
Pacioretty – Desharnais – Andrighetto
Galchenyuk – Plekanec – Gallagher
Fleischmann – Eller – Smith-Pelly
Byron – Mitchell – Weise
Markov – Subban
Emelin – Pateryn
Barberio – Gilbert
Scrivens
Condon
► Barberio not lacking mindfulness
- With the egress of Nathan Beaulieu out of the Canadiens’ lineup Marc Barberio had been given an opportunity, but still is aware of things to improve upon.
- “I know I didn’t play my best game against the Flyers. I was a bit lost at times in the defensive zone,” he told RDS. “But when you’re not playing, it allows you to see the game from a different angle and come back with a little more patience.”
- When questioned about his self-belief in being worthy of a spot in the NHL, Barberio answered the way people complain about then get mad at if he says something different “[…] I think more about wins and I want to play well for the team.”
► Trusted defensively and on the PP too!
David Desharnais has not had a point on the power play in 33 straight games. Top unit.
— Аrpon Basu (@ArponBasu) February 11, 2016
► Measuring fan sadness
► Beaulieu Rolling With The Punches
- Nathan Beaulieu was catapulted out of the Canadiens lineup following multiple disenchant games and, despite two watching the game from the press box, is nevertheless confident.
- “I believe in myself and my abilities. I think that’s what matters most,” he told the media prior to yesterday’s tilt against Tampa Bay. “This is another opportunity to get out there. I feel fortunate for that.”
- Beaulieu is taking the demotion in stride and looking ahead to this next stretch of hockey. “Obviously, I’m extremely disappointed with what happened. All I can do is take advantage of the opportunity to play tonight. I’ve just got to be better.”
The former 17th overall pick has a career-high two goals and 16 points in 51 games this season. - According to Behindthenet.ca, Beaulieu has played over 51 minutes on the powerplay the season, 30 minutes lower than Dale Weise, 63 less than David Desharnais and 110 less than Andrei Markov.
► Phaneuf headed cross-province in a blockbuster
- A flummoxed hockey world learned Tuesday that the Toronto Maple Leafs had traded Captain Dion Phaneuf, Matt Frattin, Casey Bailey, Ryan Rupert and Cody Donaghey to Ottawa in exchange of Jared Cowen, Colin Greening, Milan Michalek, Tobias Lindberg and a second-round pick in this year’s draft.
- To the whole-hearted surprise of the collective hockey world, no salary was retained off of Phaneuf’s contract, Cowen, Michalek and Greening have an accumulative $8.9 million cap hit for the next pair of seasons.
- Phaneuf had a pestilent 2014-15 campaign that saw pervasive anger directed towards the former Leafs captain, this season, however, he’s had a bounce back of sorts on the team’s second pairing.
- Jared Cowen has failed to live up to the impregnable expectations placed upon him as a former ninth overall pick, he’s played 37 games this season with four points and a plus-seven rating.
► Byfuglien re-signs
- The Winnipeg Jets have made their choice and signed Dustin Byfuglien to a five-year, $38 million contract extension.
- Prior to re-upping in Manitoba rumours of a transaction involving the 6-foot-5-inch blueliner were rampant, despite the Jets never officially putting him on the market.
- The former eight-round pick has reached double-digit goal plateaus in each of the first eight seasons in which he has played upwards of 43 games, with a career-high of 20 in 2013-14.
- Byfuglien now becomes the third-highest paid defenceman in the NHL behind parental Norris Trophy candidates P.K. Subban and Drew Doughty.
- The signing has re-ignited the Travis Hamonic for Jacob Trouba rumors, as Hamonic requested a trade to the west and it will be very vexing to sign Trouba in the off-season.
- He is currently the bellwether in terms of defenceman on the Jets in points, with 32, and is tied for 13th in assists among blue liners in the NHL.
► Pietrangelo Out Three Weeks
- The St. Louis Blues will be without defenceman Alex Pietrangelo for a minimum of the next three-weeks as the virtuous blueliner has a knee injury.
- When coming in to finish a check on the 26-year old defenceman, the Minnesota Wild’s Charlie Coyle when knee-on-knee with him which will force Pietrangelo to be evaluated in three-weeks.
- The former fourth-overall pick was averaging upwards of 26 minutes per game and had three goals and 23 points in 55 games this season.
- The injury also Takes the organizational arrogation to trade Kevin Shattenkirk, who was heavily involved in trade speculation leading up to the injury.
- Shattenkirk has now been moved up to the first pairing with Jay Bouwmeester and the Blues have placed Joel Edmundsom into his roster spot.
► Lucic Loved Being A Bruin
- Milan Lucic spent eight impetuous seasons in Boston, Massachusetts, and all though he wore enemy colours, his return to Boston was a special one.
- “I think it’s going to be a pretty cool experience to go in there for the first time as a visitor,” Lucic told the LA Times. “It’s been awhile since I’ve played there. The last home game was the fourth-to-last game of the season.”
- Despite his unscrupulous exterior, Lucic is nevertheless very proud to have played in Boston “The history lesson is what I got to be a part of. This is, what, the 92nd season of the Bruins and I get to say I was part of one of the best-ever eras to be a Bruin.”
- One of the greatest defenceman of all-time was out of the game before Lucic could pay attention “I was born in 1988. That was, what, nine years after Bobby [Orr] stopped playing. To be honest, I didn’t have much knowledge of how good Bobby Orr actually was.
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