All Habs Headlines: Tuesday March 22, 2016 |
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On this day in hockey history… 1959 — Montreal’s Dickie Moore set an NHL record for most points in a season. His 96th point broke Gordie Howe’s record of 95 points, set in 1952-53. 1989 — Buffalo’s Clint Malarchuk escaped serious injury when his throat was slashed by a skate in an accident during a game against the Blues. Sabres lost 2-1 to St. Louis in Buffalo. 2004 — L.A.’s Luc Robitaille picked up an assist to set an NHL record for most career points by a left wing with the 1,370th of his NHL career (passing John Bucyk) as the Kings lost 2-1 to the visiting Edmonton Oilers. |
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► Game day!
- The Canadiens were on the ice at the Bell Sports Complex on Tuesday in preparation for their game against the Anaheim Ducks.
- P.K. Subban and David Desharnais participated in practice wearing a no-contact jersey.
- Mike Condon is expected to get the start in goal for the Habs.
- Missed the last Habs game? Read about it here: RECAP | Flames – Canadiens: A Rare Bright Spot
- The IceCaps completed their two-game weekend series against the Syracuse Crunch on Sunday afternoon. Read about it here: RECAP | IceCaps – Crunch: More of the Rough Stuff [with Audio]
Expected forward lines, defense pairings and goaltenders
Pacioretty – Galchenyuk – Byron
Eller – Plekanec – Mitchell
Matteau – McCarron – Danault
Lessio – De la Rose – Brown
Markov – Emelin
Beaulieu – Pateryn
Hanley – Dietz
Condon
Scrivens
► Mark your calendars
- Without playoffs on the horizon, the draft lottery becomes a date of importance for the Canadiens.
HNIC announces NHL draft lottery will be on April 30th. All Canadian NHL teams interested.
— James Mirtle (@mirtle) March 20, 2016
► Tough season for the captain
- Max Pacioretty leads the Canadiens in scoring with 53 points in 73 games. However his plus/minus has taken a hit with the Habs struggling this season.
#Habs Max Pacioretty has a -51 decline in plus minus from this season to last season (+38 last season, -13 this season).
— Sportsnet Stats (@SNstats) March 20, 2016
► Bernier on a roll
- Jonathan Bernier has been a force lately.
#Leafs Jonathan Bernier improves to 3-1-0 with a 1.27 GAA & .958 SV% in his last 4 starts (5 goals against on 120 shots).
— Sportsnet Stats (@SNstats) March 22, 2016
► Bournival down again
- At 5-foot-11-inches and never a particularity boisterous scorer in the professional ranks, Michael Bournival fought his way to the NHL, but once more his career is being derailed by injury.
- Following another injury to end the 2014-15 campaign, Bournival is once again out for an indefinite amount of time with yet another concussion.
- The Shawinigan native, along with Ice Caps teammate Connor Crisp, flew to Montreal to garner further treatment, one of few times a trip to Montreal for them is mundane.
- Through 20 games with the Ice Caps this season the unremitting forward garnered the assistant captaincy on some nights, recorded one goal and eight points accompanied by a minus-seven rating.
- He last played for the Canadiens in 2014-15 where he had five points in 29 games prior to being sent down to Hamilton and was reportedly suffering from dizziness before being demoted.
► Smith-Pelly on Montreal
- Devante Smith-Pelly’s time in Montreal was one of mostly self-induced inhibition and now the winger has a scorching streak of seven goals and nine points since the trade. Smith-Pelly attributes his success to what he didn’t receive in Montreal.
- The Ontarian released his frustrations to LaPresse this week “It’s difficult to produce when you’re only playing 10 minutes a game.
- There’s a big difference between my role on the Devils and the one I had with the Canadiens.”
- “They scratched me more often than they played me,” Smith-Pelly continued. “I didn’t agree with it, but it was a reality.”
- In New Jersey, not only in the former Canadiens spending upwards of 16 minutes on the ice every night, he is playing on the team’s first line alongside Adam Henrique and free agent acquisition Tyler Kennedy.
Devante Smith-Pelly has grabbed #Habs' attention with 7 G in 9 GP since trade to #njdevils: https://t.co/rdaBwqXgum pic.twitter.com/htTUQWzStV
— Frank Seravalli (@frank_seravalli) March 22, 2016
► Bouchard hangs ’em up
- Pierre-Marc Bouchard spent 565 of his 593 career NHL games as a member of the Minnesota Wild and has now ended it with Zug of the Swiss-A league.
- The former eighth overall pick in the 2002 draft played just under 600 games in the NHL, scored 110 goals and recorded 356 points over 11 seasons in the league.
- The 31-year old had multiple tenable seasons between 2005 and 2008, all of which he recorded upwards of 57 points, but was ravaged by injuries for the remainder of his career in North America.
- The story does have a happy ending however, as Bouchard lit up the Swiss-A league in his pair of professional hockey seasons, with 28 goals and 108 points in 98 games with Zug, he led his team in points both seasons.
► Lehner out
- Unmissable psychopath and Buffalo Sabres netminder Robin Lehner will be out for the next pair of games, minimum, due to an ankle injury that is amorphous to date back to.
- Lehner missed time earlier in the season due to an ankle injury, and, according to John Vogl of the Buffalo News, will be kept off the ice completely for the next two to three days as a precaution.
- Despite his resplendent 2.47 GAA and .924 save percentage the Swedish netminder has been a washout in terms of the amount of time he’s played, only suiting up for 21 games thus far.
- Lehner, along with David Legwand, was dealt to Buffalo in the offseason in a transaction that garnered them the 21st overall pick that they utilized to select college standout Colin White.
► Gélinas out indefinitely
- The Colorado Avalanche made the auspicious move of acquiring Eric Gélinas in exchange of a third round pick but now as they battle for a playoff spot they’ve not only lost him but other pieces.
- It was announced following the team’s win on Friday night that the recently acquired blueliner will be out indefinitely with an elbow injury and teammates Nathan Mackinnon and Matt Duchene also have undisclosed injuries.
- The former second round pick was frequently benched during his last season in New Jersey hitting the ice in only 34 contests that resulted in him recording one goal and six points.
- Through six games as a member of the Colorado Avalanche, the 6-foot-4-inch defenceman has failed to get on the score sheet and has a plus-two rating.
► Vandevelde suspended
- In the midst of a playoff run that’s seen them leapfrog into a playoff spot, the Philadelphia Flyers will lose forward Chris Vandevelde for the next two games following his hit to the head of Blackhawks Captain Jonathan Toews.
- As the two were going up against one another on the offensive zone right half wall, Vandevelde elbowed Toews in the head as the two jawed for pick possession.
- The Flyers bottom-six forward was discerned a minor for elbowing on the sequence and Toews stayed in the game and ended up scoring a goal in the loss.
- “[Toews] was the first to say I was an honest player,” said Vandevelde in an attempt to take that monkey off his back.
- The former fifth round pick has 13 points in 69 games this season and Toews, who was unharmed on the play, has 25 goals and 50 points in 71 games on a slumping ‘Hawks team.
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