All Habs Headlines: Tuesday February 3, 2016 |
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On this day in hockey history… 1962 — New York’s rookie goalie Dave Dryden made his NHL debut, when he replaced injured Rangers’ goalie Gump Worsley, in the second period of a 4-1 loss at Toronto. 1984 — Boston Bruins obtained Jim Nill from Vancouver in exchange for Peter McNab. 1993 — Alexander Mogilny became the third player in team history to score 50 goals in a season (in his 46th game) to lead the Sabres to a 3-2 win against visiting Hartford Whalers. Grant Fuhr played in his first game as a Sabre, picking up the win. |
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► Game day!
- The Canadiens host the 29th-placed team in the NHL on Wednesday night at the Bell Centre. You can find our Game Day preview for the matchup here: GAME DAY | Sabres – Canadiens: Preview, Lines, Goalies, TV, Fantasy
- Missed the last Habs game? Check out our game review here: RECAP | Canadiens – Flyers: Habs Slide Continues
Likely forward lines, defense pairings and goaltenders
Pacioretty – Desharnais – Weise
Galchenyuk – Plekanec – Gallagher
Fleischmann – Eller – Smith-Pelly
Andrighetto – Mitchell – Flynn
Markov – Subban
Beaulieu – Petry
Emelin – Gilbert
Condon
Scrivens
► Surgery?
- Carey Price’s injury has been an excuse and a reason to whimper as you watch the Canadiens’ chances at the playoffs erode with each embarrassing loss, but is it more than we believe?
- In Elliotte Friedman’s weekly “30 Thoughts” he spoke about the possibility that Carey Price’s now infamous lower-body injury might be inconspicuously worse than progressively expected.
- “Another one to look out for is Carey Price, if only to troll us by practising in a different piece of equipment every day,” said the insider. “My guess is it’s a knee injury, something a skater could play with but a goalie can’t.”
- Friedman’s conjecture continued, “I’ve wondered why Price took that trip to see a second opinion in New York. Now that it’s lasted this long, there’s only one logical explanation: Les Canadiens were told he didn’t need surgery and the goalie wanted to make sure. Sometimes those injuries you can’t fix with a scalpel are worse.”
- The Sportsnet employee spoke about Montreal’s future with the MVP out of the lineup, “No one knows when or if he’s going to return, and Montreal isn’t making any short-term moves until that’s answered.”
Exclusive video by #RDS: "Carey Price seems bothered by his right leg (skating Wednesday morning)" #Habs #CH #NHL https://t.co/SvqV9GAGyk
— John Lu (@JohnLuTSNMtl) February 3, 2016
► Trade the core!
From @GagnonFrancois: Habs should consider trading core players. Yes, maybe even this guy. https://t.co/0LRVImWMb1 pic.twitter.com/pwGdwUS4YE
— TSN Hockey (@TSNHockey) February 3, 2016
► Drouin at a high price
- As soon as Jonathan Drouin’s name engulfed social media and the hockey world alike, there was a sense the former third overall pick was headed out of the conference, and for that not to happen, it would take an impetuous amount.
- Darren Dreger was on TSN 690 yesterday speaking about Drouin and Montreal’s interest in him, “As for the teams who might be interested, I think it remains the same. The Montreal Canadiens have interest, there’s no question about that.”
- “[…] I don’t think Yzerman has any [interest] in trading Jonathan Drouin to Montreal, unless Bergevin is so desperate that he’s willing to sell the farm to make that work,” Dreger continued. “I don’t think that’s reality either.”
- Through 89 career NHL games the Sainte-Agathe, Quebec native has six goals and 40 points.
► Prust clears waivers
- The Vancouver Canucks have put unadorned veteran Brandon Prust on waivers following a copacetic start to the season. Prust cleared waivers on Wednesday unclaimed.
- The former Calgary Flames third round pick was acquired this offseason in exchange for Zack Kassian and a fifth round pick in this upcoming draft.
- Through 35 games with the Canucks this season Prust had a lone goal and seven points, a projected final point total only two less than 2014-15.
- The perpetually anomalistic Vancouver club has an odd mix of veterans and youngsters which is seemingly the perfect environment for Prust, but evidently not.
- According to Jason Botchford, Prust wasn’t the most popular guy in the Canucks locker room.
- The 31-year old reached a milestone in 2015-16, recording his 1000th penalty minute.
- Prust is set to become a free agent at the end of the season and has $900,538 left on his contract should a team claim him.
► Raymond on waivers
- The turbulent career of Mason Raymond has reached another valley after the forward was put on waivers Tuesday afternoon.
Raymond earned himself a three-year, $9.45 million contract from the Flames after a 19 goal, 45 point output with the Leafs in 2013-14. - He played in all 82 games with Toronto, one of the two times he’s done that in his nine-year NHL career.
- The speedster had a prosaic five points in 29 games in his second season in Calgary.
- To put in perspective his horrific decline from seasons ago, Raymond had a lower points per-game than Brandon Prust.
- He played in the team’s bottom-six for the majority of the season, however saw time on Calgary’s fourth line prior to being placed on waivers.
► Neuvirth out a week
- The Philadelphia Flyers have lost goaltender Michal Neuvirth for the next seven-10 days due to the infamously undisclosed lower-body injury.
- Neuvirth had been stellar with the Flyers up to his point, staying in the top two in both save percentage and goals against average for the majority of the season. However he played only 21 games.
- The Czech backstop has a 2.14 goals against average and a .933 save percentage with an 11-6-4 record on a run of the mill Flyers team still close to the Canadiens in the standings.
- Neuvirth was convinced to come and join Philadelphia by Czech Republic national teammate Jakub Voracek, he signed a one-year deal this offseason.
- In his absence, Pennsylvania’s penultimate team has called up former London Knights goaltender, and former second round pick, Anthony Stolarz.
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