Andreas Engqvist centred Brian Gionta and Max Pacioretty because Tomas Plekanec was taking a family day with his wife and newborn son.
By mid-afternoon, Enqvist was on his way to Hamilton.
The lines at practice:
Cole-DD-Cammalleri | Max-Pac-Enqvist (for Plekanec)-Gionta | AK46-Eller-Moen | Darche-Nokelainen-LL
D Pairings: P.K.-Gorges, Emelin-Diaz, Gill-Weber, St. Denis-Campoli
AUDIO: Jacques Martin
• • •
The lines at practice:
Cole-DD-Cammalleri | Max-Pac-Enqvist (for Plekanec)-Gionta | AK46-Eller-Moen | Darche-Nokelainen-LL
D Pairings: P.K.-Gorges, Emelin-Diaz, Gill-Weber, St. Denis-Campoli
• Tomas Plekanec has taken a family day. His wife had a baby boy on Sunday
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So, Shanahan didn’t make a decision about Tootoo today. I guess he couldn’t get hold of Cambell or Chiarelli to find out what they wanted him to do. We’ll find out tomorrow. Probably give him the suspension Lucic should have gotten. Sounds about right.
So the Board of Governors has approved the new realignment plan. It’s essentially the same division for us, with the addition of Tampa Bay and Florida. I don’t think that’ll help us much but hey more sunshine for the guys is good I guess. The travel might be a bit much though.
Thoughts?
Also I think Florida’s doing us a favour tonight. A Washington loss gives us a bit more hope to move up.
The drive for 25 is alive!
ETA: The link if you’re interested in reading: http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=604852
I don’t mind the realignment. What I don’t like is 4 teams per division in the play-offs and round 1 and 2 being inter-division.
I don’t mind so much that they want to seed the final four 1 vs. 4 and 2 vs. 3.
I’d still rather they put the top 8 in per side and go the way it’s been since the Conference format was introduced. The idea is to get rid of the 1-2-3 division lead byes.
Although there were inter-division rivalries like Edmonton-Calgary and Montreal-Quebec back in the day there was still Detroit-Colorado in the 90′s and Montreal-Boston also have renewed acquaintances recently.
I really got tired of seeing the same teams every year in round and two. Maybe with 7 teams it will be different but I am sure after a few years of teams with more points missing the play-offs the proverbial dark stuff will hit the spinning blades.
Yes, this format will get boring fast. I hope that this is temporary. They did say it’s for 2012-2013. Maybe they’re thinking of giving it a year and then seeing what happens with Phoenix. Though I have to wonder if we’ll even have a season next year with the CBA stuff.
The drive for 25 is alive!
I was hoping for a playoff system that would see the division winners seeded 1-4 and then the remaining 12 spots filled by the highest point totals regardless of division. That way we would have unique playoff matches and ANY two teams could play for the cup. Seems they went the opposite way for the sake of rivalry/grudge match ups.
That would be a pretty good idea! The only problem I see is if you’ve got really long distance match ups with different time zones. But it would always be fresh and interesting. Rivalries were pretty big in this, but I just don’t see what we’ve got going on with TBL and FLA in our conference. The Guy Boucher thing? The Lecavelier & St. Louis thing? I don’t know. I hope they come up with some explanations. Maybe we’ll get some clues when they name the conferences. What would you name our conference anyway with two teams randomly from the south?
The one hope we have in them not going ahead with this as is NHLPA. Maybe they’ll take up your suggestion.
The drive for 25 is alive!
Well tampa and florida could use the extra visits by Toronto, Montreal and Boston to boost sales as I’m sure the snowbird factor played a role. I’m sure it came down to trying to keep ny, nyi, nj, pit, and Phil together, and putting the caps and ovie in there to face off against Crosby. So that really just leaves tampa, fla, and Carolina, and it would have made even less sense to break up the Florida teams. I would have liked to get DET, but other than that the conferences about ended up what I was expecting.
As to the name, either the Beliveau or the Orr conference, as those would be the greatest two players without something named after them from the teams in our conference. The Atlantic becomes the Lemieux, the Central becomes the Howe or the Hull, and the Pacific becomes the Gretzky.
Yeah, the extra cash going to the Floridian teams makes sense now. But those teams are going to hate the travelling. Oh well. I guess we get more Stamkos et al.
Those names are probably not going to fly. Though those guys are all legends, there’s still animosity/jealousy amongst fans of other teams. Perhaps they’ll go back to the old naming. I feel it’d ruffle fewer feathers.
The drive for 25 is alive!
That is true Habby, but I think the league will take advantage of the opportunity to celebrate the modern legends rather than pillars of the game’s history that quite frankly, few people actually know. look at the recent renaming of the Lester B Pearson award for example.
Another reason they should keep LL-Eller-Kostitsyn together: So they could be called the 1st Round Line!
Kostitsyn : 10th overall (2003)
Eller : 13th (2007)
Leblanc : 18th (2009)
I still believe LL should play with veterans Plekanic and Gionta but I like the idea of having a line of 1st rounders.
No offense to Moen but I’d rather see:
Cole-DD-Cammalleri
MaxPac-Plekanec-Gionta
AK46-Eller-LL
Darche-Nokelainen-Moen
And when/if Gomez comes back with no more than 10-12 minutes for him:
Cole-DD-Cammalleri
MaxPac-Plekanec-Gionta
AK46-Eller-LL
Darche-Gomez-Moen
The wild card in this is Gomez. If JM et al decides to start sneaking Gomez up the ranks and into the PP and onto every other shift to try and justify the cap hit this team will go nowhere but down.
Put Gomez strictly in a shutdown role. Let him eat big minutes on the PK if he’s capable. Save Plekanec for the top line minutes he needs to play.
If Gomez can’t play 4th line defensively responsible minutes then he’s of no value because offensively he’s creating more scoring chances for the opposition.
He hasn’t had to play defensive hockey since he left Jersey…which is ironically when he stopped producing points….So the 4th line center position could get him going….as long as he’s not given time on the PP.
“Of course I’m crazy, but that doesn’t mean I’m wrong.”
- Robert Anton Wilson
Congratulations to the Plekanec family on your bouncing baby boy !!!
take your drink to the end of the bar buddy…come on now, don’t be a fool…
The little guy is going to look so cute in a turtleneck sweater!
________________________________________
“Hey Richard, two minutes for looking so good!”
“The Montreal winger cut into the middle of the ice to put a big, high hit on Letang during a game last week in Pittsburgh. Letang suffered a broken nose and was left dazed by the blow and has not played since”.
He was well enough to finnish the game!
“If you’re not the TOP DAWG, the view never changes”
didn’t he score the winning goal?
The one the Ref gave him? YES
“If you’re not the TOP DAWG, the view never changes”
you call that a goal?
So TSN is reporting 4-6 on Markov now. I know it’s only a week added to each side of the 3 to 5 we were hearing a week ago, but given how this recovery has gone, I’ve just been mentally adding 50% to whatever comes from the team or the doctors. 6-9 …
I sure hope he can come back at full force sooner than the predictions, but the pattern (and there definitely is one, after all these delays, and re-injuries) suggests otherwise.
right now I’m just pleased the 4 to 6 is weeks and not months.
4-6 weeks until his next knee draining.
Ever since Markov got injured, these guys have been haunting my dreams…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Te0q3QWJ0pI
________________________________________
“Hey Richard, two minutes for looking so good!”
I’m curious as to how people see some of the different young players. As a baseline, let’s say in a trade, Eller is worth 10, and Darche is worth 2.
What are the following players worth (my #s in brackets – feel free to disagree… like you need encouragement):
- Enquist (2)
- Emelin (7)
- DD (9)
- Weber (5)
- LL (9)
————————————-
Listen to the Smart Dog. He knows his poop!
Worth 2 what… players? buritos? dollars? doggy snacks?
For me Emelin stands above all of the above and the rest I don’t care much whether they stay or go.
It’s just a relative scale. Like Eller’s worth 10, Plekanec is worth maybe 2-3 times as much at 25. Gomez is -5. Like that.
————————————-
Listen to the Smart Dog. He knows his poop!
Why did you put Gomez so high?
I have been really enjoying Emelin. When you see a hit now you know who delivered it. Subban should be taking a good look.
You don’t know your poop SmartDog. Emelin is 10, and not even available in a trade. I would pretty much put him in the Untouchable category after what he has shown recently. He is going to be a stalwart D-man for Les Habitants for years to come.
If Eller is 10
Enqvist 2
Emelin 9
DD 7
Weber 6
LL 9
Gomez – undetermined
DD worth more than Emelin? Doubt it.
If Eller is worth 10, and Darche is worth 2?
Engqvist (1)
Emelin (12)
Desharnais (13)
Weber (6)
Leblanc (as of now – 5)
Gomez.. type in 1 divided by 0 on your calculator.
this team needs size
I agree with all but
Emelin 9
weber 4
pretty close though
I just have to wonder why the 2 for Darche ?
Heard markov just had another successful surgery, that’s more successful surgeies in the past 2 years than games played.
Third times the charm right?
We can only hope
I think Campoli might work well on the 3rd D pairing with Hal Gill. When Markov comes back, let big Hal sit and enjoy the view from the press box for a while. No way I want Emelin sitting. Weber is definitely out of the rotation for now. He might be good trade bait at the deadline, defencemen are more in demand then as teams gear up for the playoffs.
Completely agree. I am pleasantly suprised with Gill’s defensive work on the PK but other than that he remains a liability. Albeit a pleasant player friendly liability. Campoli back, Hal sits and Emelin can continue to develop and keep opposing fwd’s honest.
However it could be said that J Martin is risk adverse so it is unlikely that Hal sits.
You cannot spend your way out of recession or borrow your way out of debt
Max-Pac and Shanahan.
http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=382027
New power rankings have the Habs at #20.
http://www.tsn.ca/fantasy_news/rankings/nhl/
Shanahan saying he didn’t compare the hit to Malone, he just talked about Malone. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. As much sense as a 3-game suspension for a face-to-face hit on a guy in full, plain view, who bent over into the hit… just like the Campoli hit. But of course, not Boston Bruin was involved so real punishment is fair. I’m sick of Shambelhan. The guys’ explanations just don’t match up.
————————————-
Listen to the Smart Dog. He knows his poop!
Too bad the NHL didn’t have David Branch to deal out suspensions. But then again its a good thing he’s in the
O looking after the kids.
Come to think of it these overpayed millionares in the NHL deserve the Shanahans and the Campbells.
Just dosen’t matter who they put in that job they don’t have any say,they are clearly puppets of the owners and since the top dawg resides in Boston,this is how it will be.
Good on you Max for telling the truth,while Shanny wiggles around and tries his best to wiggle his way out .
Shanny has no credibility now.
NorthTOHab
Remember this song as our goal song ! They should make it that again, someone make a petition cause I don’t know how ! haha please
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mgOjeCf9jk
Jarred Tinordi has been named to the Preliminary roster for the US National Junior Team for the Under-20s.
- I shall always remember Captain Koivu. Habs and Hockey.
SF09 on Twitter
I thought Danny Kristo was a possibility for that team?
25 before 14
Too old. He made the squad two years in a row, notching 5 goals/3 assists in his last year of eligibility.
Brian Wilde from CTV Montreal tweets
“Inside today’s instalment of “Inside JM’s Head”"….referring to LL dropped to the 4th line. LOL.
Inside JM’s head, now there’s a scary animation.
A Campbell Clone with Style
“Sorry, page not found.”
BTW I see you changed your avatar. What happened, the other LL beat you to patent rights?
Fixed.
Yes, he beat me to it, and I kept reading I was playing on the 4th line, even though, obviously I deserve to be on the 3rd line with Andrei and Lars.
Ahh, I’m in the written presence of a future superstar!
I read it. Pretty bang-on, as far as I’m concerned.