All Habs Headlines: Sunday January 31, 2016 |
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On this day in hockey history… 1920 — Quebec’s Joe Malone set an NHL record with seven goals in a 10-6 win against Toronto. 1923 — Canadiens beat Hamilton 5-4 in Montreal, in the first penalty-free game played in NHL history. 1991 — Vancouver General Manager Pat Quinn took over as head coach of the Canucks, replacing Bob McCammon. |
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► Habs ready to return, IceCaps complete road trip
- Most Canadiens players are getting ready to head back from the beaches as the All-Star break comes to a close. P.K. Subban will play in the 3-on-3 All-Star game on Sunday night in Nashville. The Habs will be in Philadelphia on Tuesday to play the Flyers.
- Missed the last Habs game? Check out our game review here: RECAP | Blue Jackets – Canadiens: Last Beats Worst
- The St. John’s IceCaps completed a six-game road trip in Hartford on Saturday night.
- IceCaps forward John Scott participated in the hardest shot competition at the NHL All-Star Skills Challenge as did Habs defenceman P.K. Subban. The Predators Shea Weber won the event for the second straight year with Subban coming in a distant second.
- You can read our recap of the IceCaps game against the Hartford Wolf Pack here: RECAP | IceCaps – Wolf Pack: Still Searching for a Solution
- IceCaps forward Michael McCarron and defenceman Morgan Ellis will participate in the AHL All-Star festivities on Sunday and Monday. Our IceCaps Hockey Report team will be reporting from Syracuse. Be sure to follow @IceCapsReport on Twitter.
► Subban Wins the Breakaway Challenge
- Five years to the day that he made his first all-star game appearance in Carolina and wore Jeff Skinner’s jersey, P.K. Subban put on quite the show in Nashville.
- Subban won the breakaway challenge after a fan vote deduced his wearing of future NHL Hall of Famer Jaromir Jagr’s jersey, flowing hair and iconic Jofa helmet was unparagoned in terms of creativity.
- The analogous Subban took home the fan vote, which was decided through Twitter for the first time this season, and the praise from his divisional foe in an interview that made Canadiens fans’ hearts skip a beat, if only for a moment.
- “I have a job for him after he retires,” said Jagr. “They’re the Traveling Jagrs. There’s nine of them; now there can be 10. With a Montreal jersey on.”
- Was it not for the large voting fanbase in Montreal, Brent Burns would have been the likely winner wearing a Chewbacca mask for his second attempt and earlier teaming up with Joe Pavelski, his son and Lil Burns for the best goal of the night.
► Carbonneau Sympathizes with Therrien
- At some point you have to look at the roster says Guy Carbonneau. The former Habs coach believes that depth is a problem when one player goes down and the coach is relegated to using Paul Byron on the first two lines.
- The longtime Canadien and unabating centreman turned analyst on RDS gave his thoughts on the Canadiens roster and Michel Therrien saying, “I just find it odd that they haven’t made any move to get this team better. I know it’s a little late now and I can understand. But if they thought in September that they had the team go to the Stanley Cup … I don’t know.”
- Carbo also noted the reoccurring discrepancy in the Habs saying, “You see the same thing we’ve seen over the last 10 years, which is no No. 1 centre, no No. 1 right-winger … and that’s not to disrespect the guys that they have there. But we keep talking about this, we keep mentioning it.”
- According to the Montreal Gazette, when Carbonneau was behind the bench in his second last season, his team led the NHL in goals and powerplay percentage.
► I Guess They Want Kovy
- The Canadiens fans are growing insidiously desperate, to the point they’ve begun a petition to bring the imperious Russian, Alexei Kovalev, back to Montreal.
- The petition is a desperate cry for help that most likely will never be answered so long as Marc Bergevin doesn’t accidentally put his head into his garage door.
- The petition is gaining steam however, amassing over 6,000 signatures as I’m writing this article.
- Some comparisons have been made to Jaromir Jagr, except Jagr actually looked good before leaving the NHL. Plus, Kovalev didn’t look exceedingly fast or dominant in an old timers game.
- The former Hab did tell Le Journal de Montreal earlier in the week that he would go and play for the Canadiens tomorrow if he had the chance.
- Canadiens fans were reminded of similar petitions that had the support of a small group of committed fans such as the one to Bench and Trade Carey Price in October 2013. The petition pleaded with Canadiens management to “get whatever draft pick possible for the man, and just get him out of a Habs uniform and out of Montreal.”
- You can sign the Kovalev petition here.
► Heat on Bergevin
- With his team slipping further and further into the abyss of mediocrity, Canadiens GM Marc Bergevin is feeling the heat, and other teams are lining up to help him.
- In an interview with TSN 690, Darren Dreger spoke about the pressure saying, “I’ve talked to a number of GMs, and they will acknowledge that there is a sense of desperation coming from Marc Bergevin, but he’s in a precarious spot.”
- The unfortunate reality of the situation is grim. Dreger continued “Teams aren’t lining up to help the Montreal Canadiens. That’s just not the reality of working things through when you’re a team that’s dealing from a position of weakness.”
- The news no Habs fan wanted to hear was spoken out of his mouth, “I’m starting to think maybe Montreal just sits there. Stands pat.”
- He went on to say they might just take the lottery pick.
► L.A. to Host 2017 All-Star Game
- After the relative success that was the 2016 All-Star Game the NHL has decided to give next year’s event to the Los Angeles Kings.
- The Kings, who are second only to the Chicago Blackhawks in terms of Stanley Cups since 2010, will be celebrating their 50th anniversary.
- The National Hockey League will also be celebrating their 100th anniversary. Los Angeles is no new comer to this event, previously hosting it back in 2002, when it was still 5-on-5.
- Kings Alternate Governor Dan Beckerman spoke on behalf of the team and was giddy, “We are thrilled that the Kings and Staples Center will host such a fantastic event in 2017 and the weekend will be one of the true highlights of our 50th anniversary season. We will put forth all of our resources to truly make it a special game and weekend for both the hockey and sports community.”
► The Hockey World Rejoices
- The allegorical scum has been cleared out of the fish tank as Raffi Torres has found his way to the San Jose Barracuda of the AHL following being placed on waivers this week.
- Torres was suspended 41 games rights out of the pre-season after delivering a check to the head of Anaheim Ducks forward Jacob Silfverberg.
- Torres has received five suspensions in his career, all of which due to hits to the head.
- He also garnered the third and fifth longest suspensions in NHL history, the other one being 25 games for an illegal check to the head of Marian Hossa in the Western Conference Final.
- To my complete and utter disbelief, the Toronto, Ontario native was selected with the fifth overall pick back in 2000 by the New York Islanders.
- In three games in the AHL this season he has a clean stat line, no goals, points, penalty minutes and has a zero plus-minus rating.
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