HEADLINES | Game Day, Therrien, Fleischmann, Smith-Pelly, Subban, more

All Habs Headlines: Tuesday March 15, 2016
	On this day in hockey history… 1941 — The Canadiens defeated the New York Americans 6-0 as Montreal coach Dick Irvin alternated goaltenders Bert Gardiner and Paul Bibeault in seven-minute intervals, for the first “shared shutout” in NHL history.  1959 — Chicago’s Ted Lindsay passed Rocket Richard as the NHL’s all-time leader in career games played when he played in his 928th game in a 4-1 Black Hawks’ loss Detroit.  2004 — Alexander Mogilny became just the second Russian player to score 1,000 NHL points, when he picked up three assists in a 6-5 win in overtime against the visiting Buffalo Sabres.
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► Game day!

• The Canadiens were on the ice for a full practice at the Bell Centre on Monday in preparation for their game on Tuesday against the Florida Panthers. It was just an optional skate on Tuesday morning in Brossard.
• Lars Eller and Nathan Beaulieu will not be in the lineup against Florida but will both travel with the team to Buffalo.
• P.K. Subban had already been ruled out for games against the Panthers and Sabres.
• Charles Hudon was returned to St. John’s with Stefan Matteau set to return to the lineup. Hudon was with the Canadiens on emergency recall.
• Mike Condon is expected to get the start in goal for the Habs.
• Missed the last Habs game? Read about it here: RECAP | Wild – Canadiens: Hardly Recognizable
• The IceCaps completed their homestand against Hershey on Sunday afternoon. Read about it here: RECAP | Bears – IceCaps: Luck O’ the Irish Runs Out

Expected forward lines, defense pairings and goaltenders

Pacioretty – Galchenyuk – Andrighetto
Byron – Plekanec – Mitchell
Matteau – McCarron – Lessio
De la Rose – Danault – Brown

Markov – Barberio
Emelin – Pateryn
Bartley – Dietz

Condon
Scrivens

► You can’t be serious

• Michel Therrien has presided over one of the worst seasons in Canadiens history. Therrien had no answers in December after Carey Price went down with injury. He has completely botched Alex Galchenyuk’s transition to centre. And Therrien has repeatedly tossed his players under the bus publicly, including P.K. Subban.
• But all of that is just fine with GM Marc Bergevin according to a report by Renaud Lavoie.
• On Sportsnet 590, Lavoie said, “Right now, there is no doubt in everybody’s mind, in this organization, that Michel Therrien is going to be back (next season.)”
• No other coach in the NHL survives a December like Therrien had. No other coach in sports survives a season like this one. Only in Montreal.

► Moving on up

• Tomas Fleischmann was a cast off in Montreal but is now a first liner on one of the best teams in hockey: the Chicago Blackhawks.

So Fleischmann-Toews-Kane is indeed your new top line. I'd assume Teravainen would replace Rasmussen if he's healthy by tomorrow.

— Mark Lazerus (@MarkLazerus) March 15, 2016

► Maybe the system, not the player, was the problem

• Former Canadiens winger Devante Smith-Pelly has a new home in New Jersey and seems to be loving it.
• Stefan Matteau, the player coming back in return, has one assist and is a minus-2 in five games played.

Former #Habs winger Devante Smith-Pelly now has 6 points (4g, 2a) since being traded. @AllHabs pic.twitter.com/RaqnB5nPaN

— Matt Smith (@Snakebite350) March 15, 2016

► Subban to miss a pair

• Canadiens blueliner P.K. Subban will be out the next pair of games, his second and third games missed with a neck injury following a collision with teammate Alexei Emelin.
• Subban was discharged from hospital the day after he sustained the injury and has missed Saturday’s game against the Minnesota Wild and last night’s game.
• The Ontarian was a bellwether on a Habs team void of offensive effervescence prior to the emergence of Alex Galchenyuk.
• Subban leads the team with 51 points in 68 games, he also has a career-high-tying 45 assists, in the top six in the NHL.
• In his absence, Marc Barberio has been deployed with Andrei Markov on the first pairing.

► Beaulieu back at practice

• Antithetical to his right handed counterpart Nathan Beaulieu returned to Canadiens practice Monday for the first time since his egress out of the team’s lineup due to a lower body injury.
• According to Elizabeth Rancourt of TVA Sports the 23-year old returned to Habs practice for the first time on Monday, he has missed the last ten games due to the aforementioned amorphous injury.
• Through 57 games this season Beaulieu has a career-high two goals and 17 points and 41 penalty minutes playing his biggest role to date in his NHL career.
• It’s been a season of peaks and valleys for the former 17th overall pick in the 2011 draft, a season that now has Beaulieu third on the team in scoring among defenceman, only trailing Subban and Markov and preceding Jeff Petry by one point.
• Only Andrei Markov remains among opening night blue liners that have not sustained injuries, Subban, Petry, Beaulieu, Emelin and Gilbert have all had injuries at some point this season.

► Selanne takes definitive stance on doping

• With the recent rash of suspensions in the NHL related to doping the NHL still has a trivial problem in comparison to other professional sports leagues however the multitude of suspensions has led to a pervasive conversation.
• Longtime Anaheim Ducks Teemu Selanne gave his opinion on the matter during a blog post that later mentioned the Winnipeg Jets-Edmonton Oilers Heritage Classic that will be coming up less than a year from now.
• “I think the only way that would make athletes think long and hard about using banned substances is an automatic life-time ban for serious doping offences,” said the former Winnipeg Jets superstar.
• “I’m sure that would at least make a person stop and think whether it’s a chance worth taking.”
• The Helsinki, Finland native amazed over 1450 games in his NHL career, scoring 684 goals, recording 1457 points and making his way to the hall of fame once he is eligible to receive that honour.

► Mantha recalled

• The Detroit Red Wings have recalled winger Anthony Mantha from the AHL’s Grand Rapids Griffins and, according to The Detroit News, will be playing his first NHL game on Tuesday night.
• The former first round pick has had a prosaic path to the NHL with an unadorned first season full of criticism, a knee injury and many valley even garnering critics from members of the organization.
• Mantha is third on the Griffins in scoring in a more tumultuous campaign with 21 goals and 45 points in 56 games only trailing, Andy Miele and former Canadien Eric Tangradi who has 22 goals and 46 points in 57 games in the AHL.
• Red Wings assistant general manager Ryan Martin had nothing but positive things to say about the Longueuil, Quebec native “He’s been very focused, and while other players around him have been called up he hasn’t complained but just continued to work hard and play good hockey.”

► Creativity

• The Florida Panthers have skyrocketed up the Atlantic division standings from their pervasively predicted place which is largely in part to the production of their first line comprised of Aleksander Barkov, Jonathan Huberdeau and Jaromir Jagr.
• One Panthers fan took it upon himself to to get a little creative with his jersey and personalized his jersey at the Panthers store to incorporate something from all three of the linemates.
• 11+16+68= 95 which is the number this unnamed fan chose to don on his back with the last name Barkargdeau on the name template.
• The Panthers store officials presumably had to check the spelling on the jersey 15 times prior to imprinting it on a Panthers home uniform.

Saw this guy Saturday night. I'll give him points for shelling out the cash to do this. Also 11+16+68 = 95 pic.twitter.com/RZtR5RWLsy

— The Keegan (@trinidaddy25) March 14, 2016

► A Bird

• It’s been a tough couple months to be an Ohio sports fan with the Reds and Blue Jackets as putrid as they are and the way in which the Bengals egressed out of the post season but at least there’s some people smiling in the sporting community now.
• A bird flew down to the ice surface at the in Columbus during the Blue Jackets’ 4-0 downing at the hands of the Tampa Bay Lightning with it having as much offensive firepower on the night as the Jackets themselves.
• Much to the chagrin of the Blue Jackets, the team didn’t find the back of the net on the night so the birds descent can’t be attributed to the infamous cannon being set off.
• The bird left the ice under its own power.

Oh this? Just a bird on the ice. pic.twitter.com/EKjBYLk2bU

— NHL (@NHL) March 13, 2016

► Morrow to Retire

• According to Mike Heika of Sports Day, longtime Dallas Stars captain Brendan Morrow will be announcing his retirement this week and will be dropping the ceremonial first pick preceding Thursday when the Stars take on Tampa Bay.
• The former Stars 25th overall pick spent the majority of his career in Dallas prior to being dealt at the 2013 deadline when he was moved to Pittsburgh, he had bounced around ever since.
• Following his extended and once seemingly perpetual tenure in Texas was up he spent time in Pittsburgh, St. Louis and Tampa Bay and then went unsigned during the free agent period.
• The 37-year old recorded 265 goals and 575 points and was plainfully close to attaining the 1,000 game plateau, he fell nine games short.

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