All Habs Headlines: Wednesday October 7, 2015 | Season Opener! |
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On this day in hockey history… 1972 — Nassau Veterans County Coliseum opened in New York, but the Islanders lost their first NHL game, 3-2 to the Atlanta Flames. Eddie Westfall scored the Isles’ first goal. 1990 — Penguins rookie Jaromir Jagr scored the first goal of his NHL career in his second NHL game as Pittsburgh won 7-4 over the Devils. 1995 — Montreal retired jersey No. 1 worn by goaltender Jacques Plante three decades earlier, as the Canadiens lost 7-1 in their season opener to the Flyers, at the Forum. |
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► Game Day
- The season opener is finally here! The Canadiens skated at the Air Canada Centre on Wednesday morning ahead of their match against the Toronto Maple Leafs.
- Head coach Michel Therrien has also announced that the expected opening night scratches should be Paul Byron, Jarred Tinordi and Greg Pateryn.
- Carey Price will make the start in goal.
- For a comprehensive preview of tonight’s matchup, including lines, statistics, TV, fantasy outlook and more, read: Recap – Game Day: Leafs vs Canadiens – Preview of Season Opener, Lines, Goalies, TV, Fantasy
Forward lines, defense pairings and goaltenders at practice
Pacioretty – Plekanec – Gallagher
Eller – Galchenyuk – Semin
Fleischmann – Desharnais – Weise
Byron – Mitchell – Smith-Pelly
Markov – Subban
Emelin – Petry
Beaulieu – Gilbert
Tinordi – Pateryn
Price
Condon
► Not the first time
- The hockey community knew that Zack Kassian had a problem. Marc Bergevin acknowledged that he was well aware of the risk he was taking in acquiring Kassian.
- According to ESPN’s Pierre Lebrun, the Canadiens troubled winger had been placed in stage 1 of the league’s substance abuse program “numerous times.” Given that there are no salary implications, entry into stage of of the program is normally not disclosed.
- Kassian has been suspended and is now in stage 2 of the SABH.
► Subban delivers pizza
- In a new commercial for Boston Pizza, the Canadiens P.K. Subban delivers pizza using his unique skills.
- You might want to put on your hockey gear while awaiting delivery of your next order.
► Byron a Hab
- The Calgary Flames have multiple bottom six forwards which led to them placing forward Paul Byron on waivers. The Canadiens took advantage claiming Paul Byron off of waivers yesterday.
- Byron, who stands at 5-foot-7, 153 pounds, had the exact same stat line as Habs sniper Alex Semin with 6 goals and 19 points in 57 games. The centreman missed the end of last season with a wrist injury that eventually required surgery.
- Aaron Vickers of Calgary Flames.com, described Byron as an “energizer bunny-type” player.
- In 138 career games the 26-year old has scored 17 goals and has 48 points; he has yet to play in a playoff game. Byron was also a favourite of Flames head coach Bob Hartley, who coaches a hard work oriented/grinding style.
► De La Rose sent down
- Almost immediately following the acquisition of the aforementioned Paul Byron the Canadiens proceeded with the demotion of Jacob De La Rose to St. John’s of the AHL.
- De La Rose was in contention to be the team’s 14th and then 13th forward, with the suspension of Zack Kassian, but in the end management decided that they would rather a veteran occupy that spot and have the Swede further develop in the AHL.
- Before getting called up to the show DLR had six goals and five assists in 37 games with the Bulldogs and was a plus-7. In the 33 regular season games he played under Michel Therrien last season he totaled four goals and six points with a minus-5 rating.
► Barberio and Tokarski clear
- After putting the pair on waivers Monday the Canadiens don’t end up losing either. Mark Barberio was a victim to Jarred Tinordi requiring waivers along with Greg Pateryn playing well.
- Tokarski on the other hand was completely outplayed by 25-year old Michael Condon who didn’t allow a goal through the two pre-season games.
- The athletic goaltender will go down to St. John’s and will likely be the team’s starter with Eddie Pasquale and Zach Fucale backing him up.
► Devils plan to honor Marty
- It has been announced that the New Jersey Devils will retire the number of one of the greatest goalies of all time on February 9th Martin Brodeur’s number 30 will be hung from the rafters in the Prudential Center and will never be worn again. The Devils will also build a statue of the great goaltender and place it outside of their arena.
- Brodeur has hoisted Lord Stanley’s cup four times and has the same amount of Vezina Trophies to his name. He has also been an all-star 10-times.
- The current St. Louis Blues assistant GM has the league record for wins with 691 and the most shutouts in NHL history with 125, he accomplished both feats versus the Canadiens.
- “I am humbled and honored to have this opportunity with the organization that drafted me over 20 years ago, and thrilled to share this moment with fans who have become like family” said the goaltender.
► Out for half the season
- Following a dangerous hit to the head of Anaheim Ducks forward Jakob Silfverberg the NHL has thrown the book at repeat offender Raffi Torres. The league has suspended Torres for exactly half the season (41 games).
- Torres has previously been suspended four times for hits to the head and five times in total. He has had nine incidents in which the league has had to talk to the “player”.
- According to Sportsnet stats, Torres has missed 74 games in his career due to a suspension and has been fined $667,527.58.
- Silfverberg was cleared to practice earlier in the week after skating by himself according to Ducks head coach Bruce Boudreau.
► Sid signs a new deal
- Sidney Crosby was a large contributor in Reebok’s success ever since he signed with the company back in 2005 but for the first time since then he will be not be representing the company.
- The former MVP signed a six-year deal with Adidas with an average annual value of anywhere between $1 million and $1.5 million, according to Darren Dreger of TSN.
- Crosby is now the only NHL player to have a global partnership with the company, Connor McDavid also signed a contract but he did so with Adidas Canada. Last year Adidas bought Reebok for a reported $3.8 billion.
► Exactly what they wanted
- The main reason for putting in 3-on-3 overtime was to limit the amount of times that games will go into what some see as a skills competition. Apparently the system is working to perfection.
Did You Know? pic.twitter.com/2YpT3OdEu3
— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) October 6, 2015
► In need of all the help they can get
- Following Leafs practice on Monday the team’s president, Brendan Shanahan jumped on the ice with shoes on and gave some shooting advice to Brad Boyes, Scott Harrington and James Reimer.
Shanahan is teaching after practice. pic.twitter.com/2at7TNBXbs
— David Alter (@dalter) October 5, 2015
► Corrado finds a home
- After failing to find a trade partner before the waivers kicked the Vancouver Canucks lost a promising defenceman in Frankie Corrado to the Toronto Maple Leafs.
- The Canucks have a crowded defensive core especially with rookie Ben Hutton making the team, but the Leafs on the other hand have a lot of space for a defenceman, especially with his talent.
- After being place on waivers Corrado had this to say on via his twitter account “Failure will never overtake me if my determination to succeed is strong enough.”
- To make room for him the Leafs have sent down prospect Scott Harrington and have waived forward Richard Panik.
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