All Habs GameDay: Tuesday February 28, 2012
On this day in hockey history… 1953 – Montreal held “Emile Bouchard Night,” giving “Butch” gifts including a car and a television set. However visiting Detroit beat Montreal 4-3.
GAMEDAY: Habs hockey tonight!
MONTREAL CANADIENS (24-29-10) vs. 
TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING (28-28-6)
Last 10: Tampa Bay 5-4-1; Montreal 4-5-1
Tampa Bay Times Forum, 7:30 p.m. EST
TV: RDS, TSN-HABS, SUN
Projected line combinations (updated following morning skate)
MONTREAL CANADIENS
Forwards
Max Pacioretty – David Desharnais – Erik Cole
Lars Eller – Tomas Plekanec – Rene Bourque
Ryan White – Scott Gomez – Blake Geoffrion
– Petteri Nokelainen – Brad Staubitz
Defenseman
Josh Gorges – P.K. Subban
Raphael Diaz – Alexei Emelin
Tomas Kaberle – Chris Campoli
Yannick Weber
Goaltenders
Carey Price (confirmed) – Peter Budaj
Scratches
Injuries
Mike Blunden (knee) – Andrei Markov (ACL) – Brian Gionta (biceps) – Travis Moen (upper body) – Mathieu Darche (upper body)
Power-play
Pacioretty – Desharnais – Cole – Kaberle – Subban
Bourque – Plekanec – Gomez – Weber – Diaz
TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING
Forwards
Nate Thompson – Steven Stamkos – Teddy Purcell
Ryan Malone – Tom Pyatt – Martin St. Louis
J.T. Wyman – Brandon Segal – Brett Connolly
Mike Commodore – Adam Hall – Tim Wallace
Defensemen
Brendan Mikkleson – Eric Brewer
Brett Clark – Bruno Gervais
Keith Aulie – Brian Lee
Goaltenders
Mathieu Garon (confirmed) – Dwayne Roloson
Scratches
Injuries
Mattias Ohlund (knee) – Ryan Shannon (upper-body) – Victor Hedman (upper-body) – Vincent Lecavalier (hand) – Marc-Andre Bergeron (back) – Dana Tyrell (knee)
GAMEDAY: All Habs Headlines
► Gauthier undewhelms at deadline: With so many teams still in contention for playoff spots there were few sellers at the NHL trade deadline. That should have allowed Canadiens GM Pierre Gauthier to unload players who aren’t in the future plans of the team such as Chris Campoli, Mathieu Darche, and Travis Moen. With a little adroitness, it may have been possible for Gauthier to unload his biggest mistake of the season, acquiring Tomas Kaberle.
Gauthier was unable to maximize the return on Andre Kostitsyn despite having a number of teams interested managing just a second-round pick from Nashville.
In the only other transaction of the day, the Canadiens claimed forward Brad Staubitz off waivers from the Minnesota Wild. Staubitz becomes an unrestricted free agent on July 1, 2012.
“When I talked to him he was very appreciative and very respectful of the time he played here. He was an original draft pick, and it wasn’t easy to trade Andrei – he’s a good guy and we really appreciated having him with the club. Mr. Kostitsyn told us very clearly that he loved playing for the Montreal Canadiens. It was his original club and he did very well here over the course of his career. Maybe he was a little bit of a streaky player, but in the end he was a positive for us.” — Pierre Gauthier
► Preds excited about AK46: With the trading of Andrei Kostitsyn, there’s yet another example of the Canadiens being unable to properly develop a highly-skilled prospect. Despite being bounced around the lineup and receiving minimal power-play time, Kostitsyn was still able to score 20-plus goals per season and be one of the team leaders in hits. The Habs had already sent Sergei Kostitsyn for no return — the younger K-brother now has a spot on the Predator’s first line and plays the power-play.
“I think he is going to come here and he is going to help a little more than he played in Montreal. I think he is going to be more happy here and I think that his production will go up.” — Sergei Kostitsyn
“He brings a lot of things; a bigger body, in the playoffs he has really good stats, more experience. He may be the most skilled guy that gets moved today. That’s a good add for us. We don’t have any reservations. The strength of our group is all that matters and we just added a pretty dynamic player to our roster. We got deeper, we added a little bit of weight, we got a little bit older, and I think that he will be a good add. It’s worked out with Sergei and we’re hoping it will work out with Andrei as well.” — Nashville head coach Barry Trotz
“[Kostitsyn’s] got a lot of talent. He’s strong. He’s big, (and has a) great shot. Things weren’t working out for him in Montreal and hopefully he can come here and hopefully things will be great with his brother.” — Hal Gill
► All Habs turns 50,000: It happened the day before the trade deadline, while the Canadiens were taking a pre-game skate before their match with the Florida Panthers:
The dial on the @All_Habs Twitter account registered the 50,000th follower. It took about 1143 days to achieve the landmark by connecting with hockey fans all over the globe. We are very grateful for all new and long-standing followers.
Congratulations goes to each member of the All Habs family who share in this milestone! Good work team!
►What’s in a number? With recent Canadiens acquisition getting the call to head to Montreal, it was time for him to choose a sweater number. With both his grandfather’s jersey (Bernie “Boom-Boom” Geoffrion’s No. 5) and his great-grandfather’s jersey (Howie Morenz’s No. 7) in the Bell Centre rafters, the fourth-generation Geoffrion decided that No. 57 would suit him just fine. It was most recently worn by Benoit Pouliot.
Brad Staubitz will wear No. 25.
► The big snit: You may remember the fuss over the faux-scoop we reported in our Game Day Headlines on Saturday. With great fanfare, radio personality Tony Marinaro claimed to have an exclusive about Canadiens owner Geoff Molson taking over the reins of the hockey department saying, “He’s the guy, the General Manager right now.”
Canadiens’ players and hockey analysts quickly shot down the report. Molson himself tweeted, “Rumours of Pierre Gauthier’s firing are false.”
It would appear that Mr. Marinaro didn’t like reading his own words printed on our pages. He sent one of our writers a direct message on Twitter — conveniently he isn’t following her, which prevents her from replying. Marinaro asked four questions but didn’t allow a reply — he seems to prefer one-way communication.
But why would Marinaro ask questions that he has the answer to in the first place? He was more than welcome to share his thoughts with us and with you, the readers, in our Comments section.
Just to be clear, the GameDay Headlines is not an investigative piece. We simply shared Marinaro’s quotes and reaction to it. Had we done a feature we certainly would have contacted the principles, just as Marinaro should have done before he ran with his “scoop.”
► New at All Habs Hockey Magazine:
Daniel Pribyl: Could he be the Next Ales Hemsky?
Catching the Torch: Holland’s Heroics
Habs Solution Might Sit in Avalanche Path
Geoffrion called up, Leblanc reassigned
Habs Trade Andrei Kostitsyn to Predators for 2nd Rounder
Trade-Proof Your Habs Wardrobe
► Puck’s take: Need to know who will win tonight? You can find Puck the Bunny’s prediction here. (check back later) His record is an impressive 18-9-4.
► Gauthier’s post-trade deadline presser:
From HabsTV:
(AP Photo/Canadian Press, Graham Hughes)