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Posts Tagged Montreal Canadiens

Scott Gomez Finally Lights Lamp

Feb 10

Posted by Eddie in Media, News | No Comments

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Stop what you’re doing. Stop the presses, because for the first time in over a calendar year, Montreal’s Scott Gomez scored. Thursday night against the New York Islanders, Gomez was able to slap home a deflected puck on the power play past sieve goalkeeper Evgeni Nabokov. It was his first goal since February 5, 2011. He’s played 53 regular season games during the scoring drought. With Gomez earning stealing $7 million from the Canadiens this season, that was a very expensive goal.

The Habs were able to beat the Islanders 4-2. His goal with 10:10 remaining in the game put his team ahead 3-0, and was assisted by Rafel Diaz and Chris Campoli. Besides Gomez, Max Pacioretty accounted for the rest of the scoring when he recorded a hat trick. His third goal came via empty net with one second left. His goal did affect one person not at the game, the person who runs this website can now rest easy- or pick another player to track a scoreless drought.

The standings in the packed Eastern Conference is getting tighter. Montreal stands in 11th place with 53 points. They are only three points clear of last place in the East (Carolina with 50), and are nine points back of Toronto for the final playoff spot.

Check out the Islanders/MSG call of the goal below:

 

Because it is Montreal, I don’t want any Francophone’s coming after me for not providing them with a french video:

 

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NHL Photo of the Day

Jan 26

Posted by EB in Media, News, NHL Photo of the Day | No Comments

AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Paul Chiasson

Montreal Canadiens’ Rene Bourque celebrates with Tomas Plekanec after netting a goal in the first period. Bourque was recently acquired in a highly publicized trade that saw Mike Cammalleri being traded after making negative comments about the club.

The Canadiens won by a landslide, a 7 – 2 final score that ran Red Wings’ netminder Jimmy Howard from the net. The win ended the Red Wings 7 game winning streak and has given the Canadiens a little lift as the NHL breaks for the All-Star weekend. Currently sitting in 11th spot in the Eastern Conference, 8 points out of 8th seed, more wins like this one are needed if they hope to make the playoffs.

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Photo of the Day

Jan 13

Posted by EB in Media, News, NHL Photo of the Day | No Comments

Photo by Elsa/Getty Images

BOSTON, MA – JANUARY 12: Mike Cammalleri #13 of the Montreal Canadiens Calgary Flames skates with the puck against the Boston Bruins. Cammalleri was pulled out of the game after two periods, sent to the hotel for later instructions, and then notified he was traded. The trade between Montreal and Calgary sees Cammalleri, netminder Karri Rammo and a fifth-round pick in this year’s draft going to Calgary in exchange for Rene Bourque, Patrick Holland and a second-round pick in 2013 going to Montreal. The trade came a day after Cammalleri made negative comments about the club, most notably that the Canadiens, “play like losers.” The Montreal Canadiens’ circus continues…

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Zach Parise Likely to Play Elsewhere

Dec 6

Posted by EB in Rumors | 1 Comment

Zach Parise may be a New Jersey Devil today, but come trade deadline or free agency, expect him to be on the move.

New Jersey Devil fans have it tough, real tough. If it is not bad enough that the Devils are currently sitting 12th in the standings in the East, young superstar Zach Parise is likely to play for another team come trade deadline or in the off-season.

The Minnesota native Zach Parise is coming into his production years at the age of 27. Playing 7 seasons with the Devils, it is time for some new scenery. With a Silver medal under his belt from 2010, Parise wants a Stanley Cup ring, that of which the Devils won’t do for quite some time.

The Devils of old were once a powerhouse team. Hard hitting defender Scott Stevens, a younger Martin Brodeur between the pipes and head coach Jacques Lemaire made every team cringe. How the years have passed, as the Devils of new are nothing but a pushover. Last year the team missed the playoffs by 12 points. To this day the team is once again sitting on the outside looking in. An argument could be that they are only 2 points back from 8th, but the Eastern Conference is a tricky beast.

My how a few acquisitions, trades and years makes a difference. The Florida Panthers and Toronto Maple Leafs have surprised the hockey community as both are currently sitting in playoff spots. It seems Brian Burke’s master plan to take over the hockey world is finally taking form. (insert lightning/thunder/evil laugh now) On the flip side, the Washington Capitals, Montreal Canadiens and Tampa Bay Lightning, all three teams who made the playoffs last season, are currently on the outside looking in. The Devils competition is only going to get tougher.

Over a quarter way in, Parise has only 16 points in 25 games. His total is from a combined 7 goals and 9 assists, a rather poor total for such a player of his caliber. On top of that, Parise has a plus minus rating of negative 10, second to worst on the team, that of which belongs to Ilya Kovalchuk with a negative 11.

Devil fans enjoy the season while it lasts, despite the slow plummet to miss the playoffs yet again. Parise is on the move come trade deadline or free agency. If you are lucky another team will be offering a trade and you can get some depth and draft picks.

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Markov Needs Additional Surgery

Dec 4

Posted by Eddie in News | No Comments

Sidney Crosby wasn’t the only important player to his team to miss a significant amount of time. Montreal made the playoffs last season and is currently sitting outside the East playoff bubble. The senior leader of the defensive corps Andrei Markov will undergo a minor surgery on his knee and will miss about three weeks in addition to the time he has already missed, Canadiens general manager Pierre Gauthier said yesterday prior to taking on Los Angeles.

“Markov’s knee is almost at full strength,” Gauthier said. “He’s undergoing arthroscopic surgery to clean up debris.”

Markov, 32, had been cleared for contact several weeks ago and there was speculation and anticipation that he might return this week during the team’s California road trip. Markov has not seen game action in more than a year because of knee surgery and has played only 52 regular season games the past two seasons. When ever he returns, look for him to be paired with sophomore P.K. Subban to form the top defensive unit.

He will be an important boost to a struggling power play unit. They have the seventh-highest payroll in the league according to Capgeek.com and have the NHL’s 26th-best power play. Combine that with sitting 11th in the conference and a 21st ranking with 2.46 goals per game, the seat is getting hotter for bench boss Jacques Martin.

With firings this past week in Washington, Carolina and Anaheim, owners who want to win and win now are losing patience with struggling play and injuries to important players.

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Healthy players could provide Fantasy Hockey boost

Dec 3

Posted by Chris in Fantasy | No Comments

Fantasy Hockey owners looking for an upgrade to their lineup could find it this weekend if they act fast and take advantage of several of the news announcements made recently for games this weekend.

It appears as if Montreal’s power play will get a huge boost as defenseman Andrei Markov is expected to return from injury tonight when they visit the Kings. For Fantasy owners, Markov is a high-risk, high-reward type player recently. He missed most of last season with several injuries, but when he is in the lineup he is one of the better points producing defenseman in the league and a staple on Montreal’s power play. Markov is available in roughly 42% of Yahoo Fantasy Hockey leagues, so consider picking him up if you need a boost in power play points.

The St. Louis Blues, winners of seven of their last 10 games, will also get a boost when forward David Perron returns to the lineup after missing 97 games due to a concussion sustained early last season. This is great news for Perron and for the Blues and comes right on the heels of the return of Sidney Crosby, another player who was down for an extended period of time due to a concussion. In 10 games last season, Perron posted five goals and two assists before going down with the injury. He scored 20 goals and 47 points the season before and could be even better. Keep an eye on him when he returns tonight.

Speaking of concussions, it appears as if Mike Richards may have suffered one during Thursday’s game against the Florida Panthers. Although the team is remaining mum on Richards’ condition and the extent of the injury, the team did place Richards on IR today meaning he will miss at least seven days. If you need a replacement for the time being, consider tapping Valtteri Filppula. Not only is Filppula red hot this season with seven goals and 20 points in 23 games, including four goals in his past five games, but the Red Wings will also play four times next week and have 14 games left in the month of December (if Richards stays out long term). Filppula remains available in 60% of Yahoo Fantasy Leagues and is well on his way to a career year.

Other options include Shawn Horcoff, who has seven goals and 10 assists and is owned in only 12% of Yahoo leagues, and Tim Connolly, who has 12 points in 13 games. Connolly is injury-prone, however, so exercise caution before you pick him up.

And good news for Toronto fans as goalie James Reimer has been cleared to play and will be available for tonight’s contest against Boston. Although he will likely serve as the backup for his first game back, Reimer started the season strong with four wins and one shutout in six starts before going down with concussion-like symptoms  and it shouldn’t take long for coach Ron Wilson to get Reimer back between the pipes soon.

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Did Jeff Carter ask for a trade from the Columbus Blue Jackets?

Nov 20

Posted by Chris in Rumors | No Comments

The Columbus Blue Jackets are off to a horrendous start with a 4-13-2 record – good enough for last place in the Western Conference. This is certainly not what Columbus had in mind after spending a ton of money to lure defenseman James Wisniewski to Columbus and trading for center Jeff Carter. Well, now rumor mongers are suggesting that Columbus may be looking to flip an underachieving Carter or that Carter himself has asked for a trade out of Columbus.

Carter himself has been a disappointment thus far with only one goal and three assists, but Carter has also missed half of the season with injuries making it difficult for him to establish himself with the team. Still, rumors are lingering that Carter isn’t happy playing in Columbus and has asked management for a trade, which harks back to over the summer when Carter was initially traded and rumors swirled after he failed to address the media that he was unhappy with the trade and didn’t want to play for Columbus.

Teams rumored to be interested include the Boston Bruins, who would love to have another goal scorer added to their lineup, the Montreal Canadiens and the LA Kings. Yes, the Kings may be in the running with Mike Richards rumored to be leading the charge to have LA trade for his friend and former teammate.

Blue Jackets general manager Scott Howson, Jeff Carter’s agent Rick Curran and Carter himself have all denied that he has requested a trade, but that certainly won’t stop speculation around the web that Carter wants out.

Carter did comment, however, that he is unhappy with his team’s performance thus far.

“I don’t think anybody is happy (in the dressing room) right now,” Carter said. “If anybody is happy in this room, they shouldn’t be. We’ve won (four) games.”

Personally, I have to call the bluff on this rumor. While the initial trade to send Carter out of Philadelphia caught everyone by surprise, it’s highly unlikely that Carter will be passed on by the Blue Jackets after only nine games. Injuries have hindered his ability to get comfortable on the ice with his teammates, thus causing his performance to suffer.

Besides, the Blue Jackets are more likely to fire their head coach, Scott Arniel, before they make any significant lineup changes. The team gave up a lot in order to acquire Carter. While he makes an easy scapegoat out of the gate because the team expects so much from him, it’s highly unlikely that they are willing to give up on Carter after so little time.

 

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2011-12 NHL Season Preview: Montreal Canadiens

Sep 6

Posted by Eddie in Power Rankings | No Comments

Offseason Losses: Roman Hamerlik, James Wisniewski, Alex Auld, Jeff Halpern, Benoit Pouliot

Offseason Additions: Peter Budaj, Erik Cole

Last Season Ranking: 6th in the East

Offense: Before Boston was able to hoist the Stanley Cup earlier this summer, they had a hard-fought series with Montreal. Habs fans (like myself) left ourselves scratching our heads at the end of the first round series saying “What if?”. What if Montreal was able to seal the deal against their bitter rival and won two of five games after starting the series 2-0? What if one of the three overtime games went in Montreal’s favor? What if Tim Thomas hadn’t stood on his head during the two-overtime Game 5 and prevented the Canadiens from grabbing a 3-2 series lead? Someone different (most likely Vancouver) would be the champions.

Erik Cole has one Stanley Cup to his name. Can he help bring Stanley Cup No. 25 to Montreal?

The offense is what lacked firepower  last season, as they ranked 22nd in goals-per-game despite having one of the better power play units that finished seventh in the league. This is where Erik Cole comes into play. He will bring added firepower up front, and don’t forget about Scott Gomez. Looking at the numbers, Gomez had one of the worse seasons of his career with seven goals and 31 assists in 80 games. He also had a team-worse -15 rating. The team would have been much more successful if that was even cut in half to -7. Imagine how much better he and the team would have been if it was even or in positive numbers. Hopefully he can find the net more often with some new faces around him.

And don’t forget forward Max Pacioretty, who suffered a serious injury at the hands of Zdeno Chara last season. He has been skating over the summer and told reporters he is stronger than before his injury because he has had more time than usual to workout. He had 24 points in 34 games last season. Expect him to reach at least 55, potentially 60 points this season. Another young player to watch for is center Lars Eller. Eller came to Montreal in the Jaroslav Halak trade and had a decent season last year when he scored seven goals in 77 games. But he is still young (22 years old) and his stock can only go up this season.

Defense: Despite losing Wisniewski, the Canadians could have one of the best blue line corps in the league. They have a lot of young, experienced players as well as the veteran who is the leader of the pack. Andrei Markov has had the worse luck in recent years with various knee injuries, but the team showed faith in his ability to stay healthy as he signed a contract extension until 2014. In his absence last season, rookie P.K. Subban picked up the slack as he became a fan favorite last season.

He was solid on the power play as nine of his 14 goals came on the player-advantage. He wasn’t selected as a Calder Trophy finalist, but he was the second Canadiens defenseman to be named to the NHL All-Rookie team (Chris Chelios in 1984-85 was the other). He was also the first defenseman in the storied history of the Canadiens to score a hat trick as he did so against Minnesota. His slap shot is lethal and clutch as he tied Game 7 against Boston with under three minutes left. Look for him to improve and become a 1-B leader behind Markov on the blue line.

Goaltending: As much as the fan base gives Carey Price crap for the soft goals he tends to allow, he was solid in goal last season when he tied for the league lead with 38 wins. He was the first Montreal backstop to lead the league in wins since #33 earned 31 wins in 1989. Their backup Alex Auld remained in Canada but signed with Ottawa. They did get an upgrade as they were able to snag former starter Peter Budaj.

HWB Playoff Prediction: Not playoff bound.

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Other Transactions That Didn’t Involve Philadelphia

Jun 24

Posted by Eddie in News | 1 Comment

With the Draft occuring tonight and the blockbuster trades and signings that occured yesterday in Philadelphia, other transactions that could have went unnoticed Thursday was the re-signing of Devin Setoguchi by the San Jose Sharks and the Montreal Canadiens coming to terms with defenseman Andrei Markov.

Setoguchi Renews Pact with Sharks

Setoguchi was a restricted free agent with San Jose, and he signed a three-year contract with the team. Craig Custance via Twitter reported the contract to be at $3 million per season but the announcement of the signing on nhl.com didn’t disclose any financial terms. At only 24 years old, Setoguchi scored 22 goals  and finished with 41 points in 72 regular-season games in 2010-11. During the playoffs, he tied for the team lead in playoff goals with seven and had 10 points in 18 postseason games. He had a niche for scoring game-winning goals as he had five during the regular season and two overtime goals in the playoffs.

While he made $1.8 Million last season, he played on a one-year deal that he signed last summer. The team wanted to see what he can prove and he did show flashes of brilliance in the second half of the season. His first half was brutal as he went 7-5-12 on the stat line the first 33 games of the season. He found his touch and lit the lamp more in the final 30+ games of the season when he went 15-13-28 in the later half of the season according to the Fear the Fin Blog.

The Sharks can only hope he can continue his consistency he brought to the table late in the season and in the playoffs. $3 million could have been a stretch to pay him, but Setoguchi played solid at the right time to drive his stock higher.

Markov Remains in Montreal

Andrei Markov will remain in Montreal for three seasons.

 

The Habs are taking a huge gamble and giving a three-year contract to a player who didn’t see any playing time last season in Andrei Markov. Markov, 32, was supposed to be the teams top player on the blue line, but he missed most of the 2010-11 season with a knee injury he suffered seven games into last season. This wasn’t his first rodeo with the injury bug as he has missed 112 games in the regular season from 2009-2011. When he’s healthy, he’s one of the top players on the blue line in the league. But the 6′, 209 lbs. Russian has to find a way to stay healthy and be productive for his team. His cap hit is reported to be $5.75 million per season. He would be interesting to see the progression of younger defensemen who was able to get playing time and experience in his absence. Markov could most likely play with P.K. Subban, who led the team in goals (14) and points (38) in 77 games as a rookie.

Things could also look good for James Wisniewski, as he joined the team via trade and will have an entire off-season and training camp to get adjusted to his new team.

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NHL Stanley Cup Finals facts and other fun trivia

Jun 1

Posted by Chris in News, Soap Box | No Comments

The Stanley Cup playoffs are a long, exhausting grind. The process takes nearly two months to complete with teams playing every other night in hard-fought, physical battles where players are tested to the extreme both mentally and physically. It’s no wonder that some say the Stanley Cup is the toughest trophy to win in professional sports. With the Stanley Cup Finals set to begin tonight in Vancouver, here are some interesting facts about past Stanley Cup winners and losers – including some history about this year’s combatants.

  •  The Boston Bruins, one of the Original Six teams, have one of the worst Stanley Cup track records with a dismal .294 winning percentage. In 17 previous appearances in the Stanley Cup Finals, the Bruins have won five times with their last victory coming in 1972. This will be the team’s sixth Stanley Cup Finals appearance since their last victory.  
  • The Vancouver Canucks have never won the Stanley Cup. The team made two previous appearances in the Stanley Cup Finals since joining the NHL in 1970 – once in 1982 and the second time in 1994.
  • Only two teams currently in the NHL have never lost in the Stanley Cup Finals. The Colorado Avalanche made two appearances, winning the Stanley Cup in both 1996 and 2001, while the Tampa Bay Lightning won their only appearance in the Finals in 2004. 
  • Six teams have never made an appearance in the Finals: the Columbus Blue Jackets (nine seasons), Minnesota Wild (nine seasons), Atlanta Thrashers (10 seasons), Nashville Predators (11 seasons), San Jose Sharks (18 seasons) and Phoenix Coyotes (13 seasons, and 17 seasons as the Winnipeg Jets).
  • In addition to those teams, another seven teams have appeared in the Finals but never won the Stanley Cup: the Vancouver Canucks (two appearances), St. Louis Blues (three appearances), Buffalo Sabres (two appearances), Florida Panthers (one appearance), Los Angeles Kings (one appearance), Ottawa Senators (one appearance) and the Washington Capitals (one appearance).
  • The Montreal Canadiens are the most decorated team in the NHL with an incredible 24 Stanley Cup championships in 34 appearances. The last time the team won the Stanley Cup was in 1993, which was also their last appearance in the Stanley Cup Finals as well.
  • Henri “The Rocket” Richard has won the most Stanley Cups as a player with 11.
  • Mark Messier is the only player to captain two different teams to a Stanley Cup championship. He captained both the Edmonton Oilers and the New York Rangers to championships.  

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