All Habs Headlines: Saturday October 10, 2015 |
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On this day in hockey history… 1979 — Edmonton Oilers’ rookie Wayne Gretzky played in his first NHL game. 1979 — Quebec Nordiques’ Real Cloutier became just the second player in NHL history to score a hat trick in his first career game, a 5-3 loss to the Atlanta Flames. 1987 — Hartford’s Doug Jarvis played in his 964th consecutive game, an NHL record, in a 6-2 Whalers loss to the Rangers.
Happy Birthday to Pete Mahovlich! |
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► Game Day
- On Friday, head coach Michel Therrien announced that newly-acquired Paul Byron would play during the current road trip. Byron rotated with Brian Flynn on the fourth line.
- Carey Price will start in goal on Saturday versus the Bruins and Mike Condon Paul Byron will make his first career NHL start on Sunday in Ottawa.
- For a comprehensive preview of tonight’s matchup, including lines, statistics, TV, fantasy outlook and more, read: Game Day: Leafs vs Canadiens – Preview of Season Opener, Lines, Goalies, TV, Fantasy
Forward lines, defense pairings and goaltenders at Friday’s practice
Pacioretty – Plekanec – Gallagher
Eller – Galchenyuk – Semin
Fleischmann – Desharnais – Weise
Flynn/Byron – Mitchell – Smith-Pelly
Markov – Subban
Emelin – Petry
Beaulieu – Gilbert
Tinordi – Pateryn
Price
Condon
► Sprouting up?
- When the Canadiens picked Paul Byron off of waivers earlier in the week Habs fans were met with the unwelcome surprise that the player was one of the smallest members of the team. He is listed on the Canadiens website and NHL.com as 5-foot-7-inches, 153 pounds, the same height as David Desharnais.
- Suddenly the player has shot up a couple inches. Guillaume LeFrancois of LaPresse reported that Byron is instead 5-foot-9-inches, 170 pounds.
- Heightening is a silly game but one played by most teams in the league. Just after 2009 first round pick Louis Leblanc was drafted he ‘instantly’ grew two inches and gained 20 pounds to give the Canadiens the big centre they had been clamoring for.
- As with Leblanc, the measurements on paper mean little, Byron’s performance will be judged on the ice.
https://twitter.com/NHLFlames/status/651456519708368896/photo/1
► A new Habs dish
- McDonalds has famously created a couple burgers with Canadiens players and their newest Habs related dish has Jeff Petry behind it.
- Petry’s dish will be a Smoked Meat Poutine. It will be available on Tuesday, October 13th.
- Stick tap for the photo to 25 Stanley.
► McCarron ready for pro career
- Canadiens prospect Michael McCarron had a great training camp. He spoke recently in St. John’s about his Memorial Cup win and the upcoming season.
► Subban excited for Galchenyuk’s potential
- Statistically, Alex Galchenyuk had a solid debut this seasons and more of that could be expected with his a ability. The Canadiens’ highest paid player, P.K. Subban is as excited as anyone for “Chucky’s” potential.
- “[The season opener] was a perfect example of him just maturing. You can see the game, pucks bouncing all over the place, and he just stuck with it, just with it, stuck with it and he finally got rewarded for it. You’ve got to give him some credit. He’s learning,” Subban told the media.
- As previously mentioned, Subban’s expectations are high for the former third overall pick. “I don’t want to put any pressure on Alex. My expectations of him are really high because I know how good he is right now, and I know how good he can be.”
- “People can’t forget his age, how young he is. He’s unbelievable for his age. For Alex, he just has to continue to focus on getting better every day, and as long as he has that mentality he’ll be fine.”
► A progressive transition
- This season will be Tim Bozon’s first in professional hockey and his transition to pro hockey will a constant one.
- Bozon will miss the first game of the Ice Caps’ season but is still aware of the difference between junior hockey and the AHL. “Last season, I had done training camp with the AHL team before finishing in the Juniors. I also played a game late last season in the regular season. This is the same hockey but with bigger and faster players. It moves faster than juniors.”
- The Frenchman’s progression was obviously stunted when he had meningitis but he’s still going down the proper road to develop properly. “[My development was] a bit delayed as I should have started last year. After that, I’m continuing my development. I had a good training camp with the Montreal Canadiens and another here also good before I hurt myself. I will continue to progress, step by step.”
- His first season will undoubtedly be entirely in St. John’s and he already has an opinion on the place he will call home. “It’s a nice place. It’s weird, it’s far, it’s different, a little out of touch. But I’ve had very good feedback from players who have lived and played here. This is a hockey town. The people here are cold and they are Canadiens fans! We feel people excited, they recognize us. For young people like us, it’s fun. It’ll be fun.”
► Budaj clears waivers
- After signing the veteran goaltender earlier in the day, the Los Angeles Kings put Peter Budaj on waivers but no team claimed him.
- The former Canadiens backup was originally invited to Kings camp on a professional tryout and signed near the end of training camp.
- Despite losing their former backup Martin Jones to Boston and then San Jose, they still have some depth between the pipes in Jonas Enroth and now Budaj.
- The Czech product was the Canadiens backup “tendy” for a couple seasons before Dustin Tokarski was favoured over him. The contract he signed with LA was the league minimum at $575,000, he’s guaranteed $100,000 in the AHL.
- One of the only reasons he signed was because the Kings put projected AHL starter and insurance policy J.F. Berube on waivers and he was claimed by the Islanders.
► What a way to start a career
- It took one game for this year’s second overall pick Jack Eichel to score his first career goal. The goal was also the Sabres’ first goal this season.
- For the record, I know you’re about to watch it, but that was an absolute snipe.
- Unfortunately for the North Chelmsford, Massachusetts native, his efforts weren’t enough to propel the Sabres to their first victory.
First Game:✔️ First Goal: ✔️ @jack_eichel11 #OTTvsBUF #NHLFaceOffhttps://t.co/he4P2jFWEm
— NHL (@NHL) October 9, 2015
► A new captain in New Jersey
- Following their former captain Bryce Salvador, the New Jersey Devils have announced their captain for the present season.
- Andy Greene, who has spent his entire 10-year career with the Devils to this point, was appointed team captain.
- In 559 career games the stay-at-home D-man has 31 goals and 171 points along with a Stanley Cup and seven playoff points in 45 games.
- The Devils also named Travis Zajac, Patrik Elias, Adam Henrique and former Hab Michael Cammalleri assistant captains.
► Lehner down
- Not only did the Buffalo Sabres lose their first game of the season, they also lost their starting goaltender.
- Robin Lehner went down midway through the second period in Thursday’s clash between the Sabres and Senators.
- It appears as though the Swede suffered a left knee injury and head coach Dan Bylsma said the injury was not day to day and it was a long term injury.
- The Sabres acquired the former Ottawa Senators farmhand along with David Legwand in exchange for a first round pick in the draft which they used to select Thomas Chabot from the Saint John’s Sea Dogs.
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