All Habs Headlines: Thursday March 10, 2016
	On this day in hockey history… 1955 — Toronto played at Montreal, but the star of the game was the Zamboni. The ice resurfacing machine made it’s NHL debut on this night.  1987 — L.A. Kings traded the franchise’s all time leading scorer Marcel Dionne to the New York Rangers in exchange for Tom Laidlaw and Bobby Carpenter. 2002 — Evgeni Nabokov became the 7th NHL goaltender to score a goal, and the first to get a power play goal, when he hit an empty-net with 47.2 seconds to play in the Sharks’ 7-4 win over the Canucks at Vancouver.
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► Game day!

• The Canadiens practiced at Brossard on Wednesday in preparation for their game on Thursday against the Buffalo Sabres.
• Lars Eller practiced wearing a light blue non-contact jersey. P.K. Subban had a therapy day and Andrei Markov was given the day off.
• Mike Condon is expected to get the start in goal. Sabres coach Dan Bylsma announced that Robin Lehner will be his starter against the Habs.
• Missed the last Habs game? A young gun and a veteran combined to down the Stars on Tuesday night. Read about it here: RECAP | Stars – Canadiens: Galchenyuk, Markov Deliver OT Win
• The IceCaps had a two-game series with the Binghamton Senators on Tuesday and Wednesday night. Read here: RECAP | Senators – IceCaps: Running Out of Time

Forward lines, defense pairings and goaltenders from Wednesday’s practice

Pacioretty – Galchenyuk – Andrighetto
Matteau – Plekanec – Byron
De la Rose – McCarron – Mitchell
Lessio – Danault – Brown

Emelin – Pateryn
Bartley – Barberio

Condon
Scrivens

► Petry under the knife

Medical update: Jeff Petry underwent surgery this morning – sports hernia (Dr. David Mulder) – recovery is estimated to be 12 weeks.

— Canadiens Montréal (@CanadiensMTL) March 9, 2016

► Tinordi suspended

• The NHL announced that former Canadiens first round pick Jarred Tinordi has been suspended for 20 games without pay for violating the terms of the NHL/NHLPA Performance Enhancing Substances Program.
• Tinordi receives a mandatory referral to NHL/NHLPA Program for Substance Abuse and Behavioral Health for evaluation and possible treatment.
• In a statement released by the NHLPA, Tinordi said, “I did not knowingly take a banned substance. I understand, however, that I am responsible for what enters my body as a professional athlete and I accept the suspension.”
• Tinordi along with Stefan Fournier was sent to the Arizona Coyotes on January 15th for John Scott and Victor Bartley in a very controversial trade.
• Arizona coach Dave Tippett said “[the suspension] caught us by surprise … It was something that’s been going on since before he got to our team.”

To be clear: Tinordi positive test happened before the trade while he was with #Canadiens organization. #Coyotes were notified yesterday.

— Sarah McLellan (@sarah__mclellan) March 9, 2016

► Demers may be done

• Dallas Stars defenceman Jason Demers missed the remainder of Tuesday’s game following a hit by the Canadiens Lucas Lessio.

Lindy Ruff said Jason Demers will likely be out long term, possibly the rest of the season.

— Arpon Basu (@ArponBasu) March 9, 2016

► Halak is sidelined

Jaroslav Halak to miss 6 to 8 weeks with groin injury https://t.co/5h6PIQT1yu

— Arthur Staple (@StapeAthletic) March 10, 2016

► Scherbak on Fire

• Through an injury-plagued start to his professional hockey career, concerns arose that it would be a trend and that this season would be lost for Nikita Scherbak. His recent stretch of hockey puts any concern to rest.
• Scherbak had eight points though the first 26 games of his AHL career on the right wing, a position of depletion, in terms of top-rate talent, in the Canadiens farm system.
• As of late, the Russian forward has seven points in five games while playing centre with Brandon McNally and Ice Caps leading scorer Bud Holloway on his wings.
• “I want the puck,” the newly minted centreman told the media. When playing centre, Scherbak has much more control of the game and zone entries.
• One would wonder however if with the overflowing number of centreman in the Canadiens farm system, both in the long and short term, if he might be destined for the wing.

► And Galchenyuk is Really, Really on Fire

Per @EliasSports: Alex Galchenyuk is first @CanadiensMTL player with 4 multi-goal efforts in a 7-game span since Stephane Richer in 1988.

— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) March 9, 2016

► I Guess Totally Not Actors Really Like Burgers, Who Knew?

• Max Pacioretty kicked off this soon to be monotonous trend of mixing McDonald’s commercials with opposing team’s fans and now Zdeno Chara has joined in on the action.
• When Max Pacioretty made Bruins fans say the hamburger christened after him was good when they didn’t know it was him. Max Talbot did the same except with the omission of the burger.
• Zdeno Chara hit the a of Montreal in front of the Bell Centre to trade a hug from him in exchange for a burger that, evidently, is worth hugging a stomach for.
• Surprisingly, nobody beat the crap out of him as they said they would do when he shoved Max Pacioretty into the stanchion at the Bell Center.

► Kovalchuk Retreats

• According to Russian journalist Slava Malamud, former New Jersey Devils walkout Ilya Kovalchuk will be staying in Russia and will play for SKA St. Petersburg in the second round of the KHL playoffs.
• Kovalchuk, previously stripped of his captaincy and all but done with SKA, was excluded from the Russian team’s lineup with the coach citing a lack of compete and leadership.
• The 32-year old has 16 goals and 49 points with St. Petersburg in 50 games this season and had eight goals and 19 points in 22 games in the 2014-15 post season.
• Should Kovalchuk return to North America prior to the 2018 campaign he would need clearance from all 30 teams in the NHL.

► Drouin’s Back

• The Jonathan Drouin saga has taken a turn for the positive as the winger has had his suspension lifted and will be returning to the Syracuse Crunch lineup with playoffs a dim hope.
• Following a seven game stint in the AHL in which he recorded two goals and one assist, Drouin refused to continue playing for the club and retreated home to practice on his own and with a local team.
• According to Tampa Bay Lightning journalist Erik Erlendsson, Bolts GM Steve Yzerman said he would not rule out a call up should the former third overall pick play well with the Crunch.
• The 19-year old has played limited minutes in his time in Tampa Bay, with reports suggesting Drouin requested a trade months in advance and he and his agent felt it was best to release it publicly.

► Jagr Makes More History

• All that is remotely intelligent has been said about 44-year old Jaromir Jagr and the veteran has now jumped over one of the oldest players to ever don his team’s uniform in professional sports.
• With an assist in a loss to the Boston Bruins on Monday night, Jaromir Jagr took hold on the  third highest point total in NHL history. Jagr passed the immortal Gordie Howe with 1851 points.
• Former Canadiens assistant coach, current Panthers head coach Gerrard Gallant had this to say about the league’s eldest player “It’s great to be there. You see him on the clock and passing Gordie Howe in points. I mean, that’s unbelievable. But really, I try and come and do my job and put him on the ice as much as I can.”

► Kruger re-signs

• The Chicago Blackhawks and centreman Markus Kruger have agreed to a $9.25 million extension that will keep the Swede in the Windy City for the next three seasons.
• Kruger waited out the offseason in hopes the Hawks would move cap to sign him, which they did in the forms of Patrick Sharp, Kris Versteeg and Brandon Saad. Johnny Oduya did the same except the Hawks chose not to sign him.
• The former 149th overall pick in the 2009 NHL draft is a key piece to Chicago’s bottom six and penalty kill, which has taken a nose dive since his absence from the contender’s lineup.
• With the eventual needs of re-signing the likes of Teuvo Teravainen, Andrew Shaw and Trevor Van Riemsdyk salary cap will be tight with the Kruger signing, however he is an integral part of their lineup.
• In 33 games prior to injury this season Kruger has a merger one point with his career-high in points coming in 2013-14 in his soft more season.

 

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