All Habs Headlines: Saturday October 17, 2015 | Game Day |
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On this day in hockey history… 1974 — The Washington Capitals had their first win in team history. 1990 — The Buffalo Sabres retired Gilbert Perreault’s #11 in a game versus the Canadiens. 2000 — Patrick Roy became the all-time winningest goalie in NHL history.
Happy birthday to Francis Bouillon! |
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► All Habs Game Day!
- The Canadiens opened the Bell Centre on Thursday night with a historic 3-0 win over the Rangers giving the franchise it’s first 5-0-0 start to the season. You can read our game report here: Recap – Canadiens vs Rangers: Price Pitches Shutout for Best Habs Start Ever
- No lineup changes are expected for the original six matchup against the Red Wings.
- Carey Price will get the start in goal. Petr Mrazek is expected to be in goal for Detroit.
- For a comprehensive preview of tonight’s matchup, including lines, statistics, TV, fantasy outlook and more, read: Game Day: Red Wings vs Canadiens – Home Opener, Lines, Goalies, TV, Fantasy
Forward lines, defense pairings and goaltenders at practice
Pacioretty – Plekanec – Gallagher
Eller – Galchenyuk – Semin
Fleischmann – Desharnais – Weise
Flynn – Mitchell – Smith-Pelly
Markov – Subban
Emelin – Petry
Beaulieu – Gilbert
Tinordi – Pateryn
Price
Condon
► Cashing in
- After a couple weeks of debate the decision was finally made on Tomas Plekanec. The Canadiens signed the Czech forward to a two-year, $12 million contract.
- The former 71st overall pick will receive $7 million in the first year of his contract and will get an income of $5 million in the final year of his deal.
- According to Bob McKenzie of TSN, the deal doesn’t include no-trade or no-movement clause.
- The soon to be 33-year old has spent all of his 11 NHL seasons in Montreal and recently passed Bob Gainey on the team’s all-time scoring list. Arpon Basu of LNH.com asked Plekanec about his feat “The Stanley Cup is the mark for me. You look at all these guys around the room on the pictures, they won the Stanley Cup, and that’s the big difference.”
- In five games this season the assistant captain has four goals and no assists in five games with a plus-seven rating.
- Last season was the Kladno, Czech Republic native’s best since the 2009-10 season when he had 25 goals and 70 points in 82 games. He had 26 goals and 60 points in 82 games last season.
► Well deserved
- When the news broke about Tomas Plekanec’s contract extension there was a collective calm throughout Habs land, Max Pacioretty included.
- Greg Pateryn, Alex Semin, Devante Smith-Pelly, Jarred Tinordi, Nathan Beaulieu, Brian Flynn, Paul Byron and Tomas Plekanec were the only ones at Friday’s optional practice and captain Max Pacioretty took advantage of his day off to congratulate his teammate.
► Accidentally on purpose
- Not only did the Canadiens beat the Rangers on the scoreboard on Friday night they also made the world right again.
- As Chris Kreider was coming in on the forcheck Carey Price just happened to drill him as he was trying to get around the net.
- As a final dose of irony just as with Chris Kreider’s incident, there was no penalty on the play.
Carey commented on the event in his post-game media scrum “Q: ‘Accidentally on purpose?’
CP: ‘I didn’t know it was him.’
Q: ‘Even when you were staring at him?’
CP: ‘Didn’t know it was him.’”
► Cautiously optimistic
- The Canadiens have started out 5-0-0 for the first time in their history and not due in small part to the contributions of Max Pacioretty. Pierre Lebrun of ESPN, TSN and RDS sat down with the sniper to talk about the season thus far.
- “It’s tough to play four in a row on the road, and especially against a team [Pittsburgh] that has that many stars, hasn’t won a game yet, and was coming home for their opener. That was a gutsy win by our group, I think,” said Pacioretty.
- The captain is off to a blazing start but the 26-year old isn’t entirely attributing that to himself saying, “Yeah, a bit. I mean, it definitely helps your confidence, but I think I’ve gotten some bounces early in the year. They come in bunches like that. I’ve just been fortunate right now. The role I’m given I feel like is more two-way than it was in the past […]”
- According to Lebrun, Pacioretty was a big Derek Jeter fan growing up and asked if he can take some lessons from the way the former Yankee captain carried himself on and off the field saying “I think about not just captains in hockey, but leaders in other sports, and how they act on the field in Jeter’s case and on the ice for hockey players, but also away from the field and away from the rink. I definitely have a long way to go to be considered one of them.”
► Back in the NHL
- Former Canadiens defenceman Hall Gill has once again found a spot with an NHL team but this time not on the ice.
- The Florida Panthers have hired the former 207th overall pick in the 1993 draft to become the team’s manager of player development.
- “We are very pleased to welcome Hal to our organization. We are honored to have someone with his level of hockey experience work with our prospects and assist them in developing their young careers.” said General Manager Dale Talon.
- The 40-year old played on all ends of the spectrum, spending eight years in Boston, two years in Toronto and three years with the Canadiens.
► An unfortunate end
- The aspirations weren’t very high for former Habs first round pick Louis Leblanc when he arrived with the Islanders and the team’s recent roster move reflected that.
- The Islanders put Leblanc on waivers today to the intention of assigning him the AHL and join the Bridgeport SoundTigers.
- Instead the former 18th overall pick signed with Bratislava in the KHL according to his agent Pat Brisson.
- The Pointe-Claire, Quebec native had 14 goal and 29 points in 71 games last season but those somewhat non mediocre numbers were accompanied by a minus-19 rating on an admittedly horrible Norfolk Admirals team.
- In 50 career NHL games, all of which were with the Canadiens, he had five goals and the same amount of assists and he had a plus-four rating.
► A big blow
- Following a solid start to the season the San Jose Sharks have lost one of their biggest pieces for an extended period of time.
- The Sharks will be without centreman Logan Couture for 4-6 weeks.
- The young superstar “caught a rut in the ice” and a teammate fell on his ankle and fractured his right fibula according to Britt McHenry of ESPN. He will undergo surgery this week.
- “Quick thank you to everyone for kind words. I know the boys will hold it down. I’ll be back,” said Couture via his Twitter account of Friday.
- Couture was the team’s second leading scorer last season with 27 goals and 67 points in 82 games.
► The Flames lose another forward
- The Calgary Flames will be without centreman Lance Bouma for the next three months following surgery to repair a broken left fibula he sustained in a game versus the St. Louis Blues.
- The main reason why they place current Montreal Canadiens forward Paul Byron on waivers was because they didn’t have place for the centreman, space that has now opened up.
- Bouma led the Flames in both hits and blocked shots last season and had 16 goals and 34 points in 78 games.
- He was minus-three with no points in three games this season.
- “It’s a big loss for us, but like we’ve always said you can’t win with the players you don’t have in the lineup. You have to win with the ones that are on your roster,” said head coach Bob Hartley.
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