All Habs GameDay: Friday November 4, 2011
Happy Birthday to… former Canadiens player Eric Fichaud (36) and hockey broadcaster Howie Meeker (87)
MONTREAL CANADIENS vs OTTAWA SENATORS
Scotiabank Centre 7:30 p.m. TV: RDS
►Canadiens hockey tonight!
Projected line combinations:
MONTREAL CANADIENS
Forwards
Max Pacioretty – Tomas Plekanec – Brian Gionta
Mike Cammalleri – David Desharnais – Erik Cole
Andrei Kostitsyn – Lars Eller – Travis Moen
Mathieu Darche – Petteri Nokelainen – Michael Blunden
Defenseman
Josh Gorges – P.K. Subban
Hal Gill – Raphael Diaz
Jaroslav Spacek – Yannick Weber
Goaltenders
Carey Price – Peter Budaj
Scratches
Alexei Yemelin
OTTAWA SENATORS
Forwards
Chris Neil – Jason Spezza – Milan Michalek
Erik Condra – Colin Greening – Nick Foligno
Bobby Butler – Zack Smith – Nikita Filatov
– Stephane Da Costa –
Defensemen
Erik Karlsson – Filip Kuba
Brian Lee – Chris Phillips
David Rundblad – Sergei Gonchar
Goaltenders
Craig Anderson
Daniel Alfredsson is out of the lineup with a concussion after taking a hit from Wojtek Wolski in a game against the Rangers last Saturday.
► Injury update: Andrei Markov has been skating with Canadiens strength and conditioning coach, Pierre Allard.
Chris Campoli – hamstring tear
Scott Gomez – upper-body
Andrei Markov – knee
Ryan White – sports hernia
► Rinne’s windfall is Gauthier’s nightmare : The Nashville Predators have locked up goaltender Pekka Rinne for the next seven years to the tume of $49 million. At $7M per season, Rinne becomes the highest paid goaltender in the league.
Suffice to say that the floor has been set when Pierre Gauthier begins his discussion with the agent of the Canadiens franchise goaltender. Price is every bit an equal of Rinne in terms of his importance to the Habs, and he is five years younger.
Read more: Nashville Predators pay big-time for Rinne
► The Chameleon : The Canadiens official magazine has a ten-page feature on the versatile Yannick Weber. Without much fanfare, Weber has been the Habs best defenseman in the early going of the season. Blog Swiss Habs has posted images of the magazine spread on Weber.
Read more: Le Cameleon
► Waiting for a chance : Canadiens defenseman Alexei Emelin is learning what many before him have: regardless of how well you play, Jacques Martin will play his favourites. Emelin has done all he has been asked to do, but is not the media darling that Raphael Diaz is. Consequently Emelin watches from the press box while Diaz is allowed to flounder on the ice.
“Every player wants to play as much as possible. When I was in Russia, I was often on the ice and they trusted me. But I could not be sure to play all the games coming here. I knew the competition would be raised within the team. ” — Alexei Emelin
Read more: Emelin: “I have to prove that I belong in this league” (in French)
J Martin cannot leave this potential top defenseman off the ice forever, his size and strength and abilities cannot be improved by sitting on the bench. He needs to play. I can understand not wanting to break up a winning lineup but now we have lost to NY it is time to get him back into the lineup and Diaz needs to sit and learn from the press box as well. The next time we play the Flyers and Bruins we are going to need Emelins size. Martin has been lucky that we pulled out of the slump, not sure if it was a coindence or not that Spacek was inserted into the lineup but as much as I would like to see him traded I have to give credit where it is due. Diaz is going to be a good Defenceman too but he needs to sit awhile like Emelin.
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