All Habs Headlines: Friday March 4, 2016
	On this day in hockey history… 1973 — 44-year-old Jacques Plante made 27 saves in his first game as a Boston Bruin in a 4-0 win over Chicago. The legendary Montreal goalie played 8 games in Boston to end his NHL career.  1981 — Montreal’s Guy Lafleur scored two goals to become the 15th player in NHL history to score 1,000 career points. 1989 — Wayne Gretzky scored twice in a 6-2 Kings win over the Flyers to hit the 50 goal mark for the 9th and final time in his career.
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► Travel day!

• The Canadiens travelled to Winnipeg ahead of their game with the Jets on Saturday night at the MTS Centre.
• Missed the last Habs game? The Canadiens beat the Leafs in a battle of AHL players on Saturday night. Read about it here: RECAP | Canadiens – Kings: Habs Offense Stifled in LA
• The IceCaps begin a six-game homestand on Friday night against the Albany Devils. Be sure to follow @IceCapsReport on Twitter and check out game recaps at IceCaps Hockey Report.

https://twitter.com/CanadiensMTL/status/705864439791263744

► Price Confident in his Return

• One of the most barbarous stretches of any professional sports team in the history of sports was kick-started by the second absence of Carey Price now, months later, he is receiving shots and is ahead of schedule.
• Price hit the ice Thursday afternoon and received shots from an NHL player, David Desharnais who skated for the first time since his injury, for the first time since late November.
• Following the practice Price was made available to the media for the first time in multiple months and commented on his confidence he will return this season.
• “I’m pretty confident,” he said of the idea that he might make his return this season. “I keep pushing my limits, especially since I started training in full equipment.”
• “I’m really exited to be back on the ice and get back to competing,” said the former MVP. “I’m gonna play regardless. I’d rather do it sooner than later.”

#canadiens David Desharnais is shooting on Carey Price. #tvasports

— Renaud Lavoie (@renlavoietva) March 3, 2016

► No Hard Feelings from DSP

• The vexing career of Devante Smith-Pelly as a member of the Canadiens took an abrupt end after the winger was dealt to New Jersey, much to his chagrin, but the forward had nothing but good things to say about the organization.
• “He’s the coach,” Smith-Pelly said of Michel Therrien. “I have nothing bad to say about him. I guess obviously he didn’t think I fit in here or whatever the case may be. But no hard feelings.”
• He was questioned on the state of the dressing room saying “There’s nothing like that going on. Fans there and people from the outside are just looking for maybe a reason why that slumps was going on,” said the Ontarian.
• The 6-foot Devil continued “That was one of the closest rooms I’ve ever been in. There’s nothing like that going on.”

https://twitter.com/Ayan_SB/status/705621948097638400

► Price, Pacioretty, Plekanec, Markov selected to World Cup

• The event that most hockey fans will detest came with it an announcement of the preliminary 16 man roster, with four Canadiens making their respective teams, and one notable omission.
• It came to the surprise of few when P.K. Subban was excluded from the first 16 players, and four defencemen, on team Canada’s World Cup of Hockey roster.
• Canada still must add three other defenceman with no notable preference on which handedness the blueliner must be, however it would be simple to presume that should Subban be selected by the team that he would be utilized as the seventh defenceman.
• Alex Galchenyuk also didn’t make the preliminary roster for the under-23 team.
• Current Canadiens excuse absorber Carey Price was selected to take part in the tournament, with little to no indication at this juncture whether he will play or not.
• Canadiens captain Max Pacioretty (USA), Tomas Plekanec (Czech Republic) and Andrei Markov (Russia) will be the other representatives from the Canadiens attending the tournament.

First 16 players named to Team Canada’s World Cup of Hockey roster. #WCH2016 | Read: https://t.co/iWIynLbTNr pic.twitter.com/GQYH5ZoIby

— Hockey Canada (@HockeyCanada) March 2, 2016

► World Cup Jerseys revealed

• With the World Cup of Hockey rapidly approaching the ever team’s jerseys have been revealed, including the runaway favorite of the tournament team Canada.
• The Tournament will take place in September of this calendar year, just prior to the commencement of training camp.

► Gomez signs in Ottawa

• With the announcement of Kyle Turris being shutdown “for a while” the Ottawa Senators have turned to the free agent market to fill their whole down the middle in the form of Scott Gomez.
• Gomez has been very productive following his cut from the St. Louis Blues, where he had eight points in 21 games, in 18 games in Hershey with the Bears, he has four goals and 24 points.
• The former Canadien punching bag joined the Devils last season and contributed 34 points in 58 games on a goal starved New Jersey squad.
• The Anchorage, Alaska native will be making the league minimum $575,000 for the remainder of this 2015-16 campaign that he will be signed for.
• At Senators practice Gomez slotted in between Ryan Dzingel and Alex Chiasson on the team’s fourth line.

► Hunt Signs in Florida

• The icing on the cake of the completely unmitigated disaster that was the 2015-16 season for the Montreal Canadiens was the Florida Panthers signing Dryden Hunt.
• Hunt, who currently has 50 goals and 103 points in 64 games alongside Graeden Point in Moose Jaw, was invited to Canadiens camp this preseason but wasn’t signed and was eventually released.
• In defence of the team that can do no right, the Canadiens, there were little to no indications of a breakout coextensive to this one, his career high in goals prior to this season was 21.
• The 6’0 winger was signed to a standard three-year entry level contract of which the fiscal terms were not disclosed to the public.

► Budaj signs a one year deal

• Former AHL banishee Peter Budaj has signed a one-year pact with the L.A. Kings to remain a member of the organization that he revived his career with.
• In the AHL this season Budaj has eight shutouts, a .934 save percentage and a 1.60 goals against average and a 30-10-3 record in 43 starts with the newly minted Ontario Reign.
• The former Canadiens backstop has only appeared in one game with the Kings this season recording an .857 save percentage and a 3.85 goals against average.
• For the majority of the season Budaj has been the team’s third option behind perennial Conn Smythe contender Jonathan Quick and Jonas Enroth.

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