Blogging About The Montreal Canadiens and Canadiens Hockey

Another great Montreal Canadiens and Toronto Maple Leafs battle! Both of the previous games between these two teams this year were decided in extra time with Gorges scoring in OT to win the first one and the second one was won by a shootout.

It looks like Scott Gomez and Matt D’Agostini will dawn the bleu, blanc et rouge once again which is a great sign. Also, Carey Price will get his ninth straight start between the pipes for the Canadiens.

Price is a career 5-3 against the Maple Leafs recording a .916 save percentage and a 3.07 goals against average. These games tend to be a close with either very little scoring, or a whole helluva lot. The last game against Toronto, Price made 43 saves to record a .935 save perventage. He’s played well against the Leafs this year so let’s hope that trend can continue.

Plekanec leads the team with 4 points (4 assists) against the Leafs this season so he’s probably gonna be the guy to watch tonight.

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It didn’t take Bob Gainey, Interim Coach and General Manager of the Montreal Canadiens, long to begin making changes with his team. Gainey has changed all three defensive pairings and has put Alex Kovalev on left wing with Matt D’Agostini and Tomas Plekanec.

Andrei Markov and Mike Komisarek are reunited as the #1 D-pairing, Ryan O’Byrne will play with Roman Hamrlik on the second D-pairing, and Mathieu Schneider will see slightly less ice-time playing on the third D-pairing with Josh Gorges.

The thing that really surprised me was that Max Pacioretty will be benched alongside Patrice Brisebois, and the injured Guillaume Latendresse.

I’m VERY happy to see the Tanguay-Koivu-A. Kostitsyn line stay together. That line absolutely dominated in the game against Dallas and had so many scoring chances.

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Josh Gorges does not seem to have a concussion after passing medical tests. He will play tonight. He suffered an undisclosed injury which is why he did not return to Saturday’s game against the Kings and sat out Sunday’s game against the Bruins.

Patrice Brisebois is out tonight with a “lower body injury”.

Both Mathieu Dandenault and Georges Laraque were on the ice, we could see Laraque as soon as Friday and Dandenault next week.

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From NHL.com:

Los Angeles Kings defenseman Denis Gauthier has been suspended for five games, without pay, as a result of a blow to the head delivered during NHL Game #732, Jan. 31 against the Montreal Canadiens, the National Hockey League announced.

Under the terms of the Collective Bargaining Agreement, and based on his average annual salary, Gauthier will forfeit $56,451.61. The money goes to the Players’ Emergency Assistance Fund.

Gauthier was assessed a five-minute major for charging and a game misconduct for hitting Canadiens’ defenseman Josh Gorges at 3:50 of the second period.

Gauthier will miss games at Ottawa on Feb. 3, at Washington on Feb. 5, at New Jersey on Feb. 7, at New York Islanders on Feb. 10 and against Calgary on Feb. 12. He will be eligible to return on Feb. 14 against Edmonton.

Gorges did not return for the third period of the game against the Los Angeles Kings and sat out yesterday’s game against the Bruins as a precautionary measure. No word yet on when he will return.

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Not only was it boring, but we lost for the second straight game in a row. The final score, a mind blowing 5-2. This coming from a team who showed excellence without star goaltender, Carey Price, and their captain Saku Koivu, who were both back in the lineup last night.

Goals for the Canadiens came from Matt D’Agostini and Josh Gorges, which just goes to show you how the night went. I’m not really sure what Carbonneau is going to have to do to get the top lines scoring on a consistent basis because we really don’t have that at the moment and it’s something that we desperately need.

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Looks like the Canadiens were putting on intra-squad game for some locals and here are some funny interviews with the players, most of it in French, but Carey Price and Josh Gorges are in English.

http://www.rds.ca/video/visionneuse.html?video=19147

Edit: This was actually an open practice.

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With Mike Komisarek out, Josh Gorges has taken up the challenge of being on the top D pairing alongside Andrei Markov and he’s beginning to get some recognition for his hard work. TSN has a great article about him here is the link and excerpt:

The six-foot-one, 200-pound defenceman was considered two small for major junior hockey, let alone his current job – skating on the Montreal Canadiens top defence pair with the gifted Andrei Markov.

The 24-year-old was not drafted as a teenager by any of the teams in the Western Hockey League and, after playing well enough to be captain of the Kelowna Rockets, was left undrafted by the 30 NHL clubs in 2002, finally signing as a free agent with San Jose.

Source: TSN.ca

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