All Habs Headlines: Wednesday October 12, 2011
Happy Birthday to… former Canadiens’ J.J. Daigneault (46) Marcel Hossa (30) and NHL’er Dwayne Roloson (42).
►From Brossard:
Line combinations at practise on Tuesday morning
Forwards
Erik Cole – Tomas Plekanec – Travis Moen
Max Pacioretty – Scott Gomez – Brian Gionta
Andrei Kostitsyn – David Desharnais – Mathieu Darche
Lars Eller – Andreas Engqvist – Aaron Palushaj
Defenseman
Hal Gill – P.K. Subban
Josh Gorges – Raphael Diaz
Alexei Emelin – Yannick Weber
Goaltenders
Carey Price
Peter Budaj
►You pick the lines:
After the acquisition of Erik Cole, you may have heard the following: “With depth at forward at least we won’t see Moen or Darche on the first line!” Apparently they underestimated Jacques Martin. While Moen played well in Winnipeg on Sunday, he proved last season not to be capable of playing as a top-six forward.
If we had our way, the lines would look something like this: Snipers on the first two lines. Eller at center on the third line where he is most effective flanked by Palushaj for offense, and Moen to look after defensive responsibilities.
Erik Cole – Tomas Plekanec – Andrei Kostitsyn
Max Pacioretty – Scott Gomez – Brian Gionta
Travis Moen – Lars Eller – Aaron Palushaj
David Desharnais – Andreas Engqvist – Mathieu Darche
What say you?
►Injury update:
Mike Cammalleri – leg laceration
Chris Campoli – hamstring tear
Jaroslav Spacek – chest
Andrei Markov – knee
Ryan White – groin
From our friend Brian Wilde at CTV Montreal who questioned Jacques Martin on the latest additions to the injury list:
[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/#!/BrianWildeCTV/status/123798473500930048″]
►5-point game for Gallagher: While many of us were experiencing a turkey coma on Thanksgiving Monday, Habs prospect Brendan Gallagher was scoring a hat trick and adding two assist in leading his Vancouver Giants to a 5-1 win over the Victoria Royals.
“Brendan is so tenacious on the puck that he just drags people along with him. It’s pretty outstanding anytime you can be in on every goal, and be a force every time you’re on the ice. He’s a fun player to coach and I’m sure he’s a fun player to watch.” — Giants coach Don Hay
Read more: Giant’s Gallagher eats up Royals defense
►Hunter wants Tinordi’s talent on ice: This season the 6’7″ captain of the London Knights, Jarred Tinordi, is stronger and his crushing hits are hitting targets with authority. The Canadiens prospect is also quite capable of dropping the gloves when challenged or to come to the aid of a teammate. But GM Mark Hunter has hinted loudly that the Knights brass would rather see Tinordi on the ice.
“He’ll fight. But we don’t want them to have a guy playing two minutes a game fighting someone who plays 25, 30 minutes a game. That doesn’t make sense. We don’t need that. We need him out there.” — Knights GM Mark Hunter
Read more: Tinordi’s talent needed on ice
►O’Byrne destroys Chara: From the what-could-have-been department, we see that former Canadiens player Ryan O’Byrne is still capable of delivering a big hit as he drops Zdeno Chara when the Avalanche met the Bruins on Monday.