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It was a long week for the Habs who won just 1
of 4 contests and were listless for most of it.  It was the opposite in
Hamilton; the Bulldogs won 3 of their 4 games and took over the division lead. 
We look back at a decade of deals for December, while the Final Thought
addresses why Maxim Lapierre’s days in Montreal may very well be numbered. 
This, plus the weekly power rankings, in the Recap.

Power Rankings

The PPR’s are on a cumulative basis with
some bias towards the current week.  The prev. column represents the last
ranking for the player; players not on last week’s list will be slotted back
where they were when returning from injury/benching/recall (italicized numbers). 
Thus, multiple players may have the same previous ranking.

Rk	Player	Prev.	Comments
1	Tomas Plekanec	1	Aside from 3 penalties on Saturday, another strong week with 4 helpers.
2	Mike Cammalleri	2	Always a threat but the production just wasn’t there this week.
3	Carey Price	3	Like last week, lots of good stops but the soft goals proved to be killers.
4	Jaroslav Halak	6	Was decent vs Buffalo and stellar vs the Islanders.  The rumors continue.
5	Andrei Kostitsyn	7	Now this is the player fans and coaches alike have wanted to see.
6	Glen Metropolit	4	Some costly penalties early, but hit the scoresheet again by week’s end.
7	Scott Gomez	7	Managed to get a couple of helpers despite AHL calibre linemates.
8	Roman Hamrlik	5	It sucks that he got hurt but it’s not like he couldn’t use the rest.
9	Andrei Markov	–	Can’t debut at #1 with only 1 game; this is the highest debut of the year.
10	Josh Gorges	9	Another steady, unspectacular week, the kind we’ve come to expect.
11	Travis Moen	11	May not have been the prettiest of tallies but a goal’s a goal.
12	Max Pacioretty	10	Struggled with consistency this week but saved his best outing for last.
13	Jaroslav Spacek	12	Perhaps when Hamrlik comes back he can take a game or two off for rest?
14	Hal Gill	15	Playing too much due to injuries but is doing well, especially on the PK.
15	Sergei Kostitsyn	11	Goalless in his last 32 games and isn’t bringing any physical play either.
16	Paul Mara	17	Good on him for wanting to return early, better not cost him long term.
17	Marc-Andre Bergeron	14	Struggled more than he had lately in his own end but decent offensively.
18	Maxim Lapierre	16	Struggling to find his role although getting moved around doesn’t help.
19	Matt D’Agostini	18	Bringing no offence to the table despite playing with Scott Gomez.
20	Ryan O’Byrne	19	Really struggling, hopefully playing with Markov will help him simplify.
21	Tom Pyatt	20	Had a nice run, hopefully going back to the AHL gets his offence going.
22	Georges Laraque	21	Had a few decent moments out there, good at protecting the puck.

The Dog Pound

The week started off with a loss but ended with
the Bulldogs taking over first place in the division.

Results:

December 15	1	2	3	Tot	PP	SOG
Milwaukee	0	0	3	3	1/1	17
Hamilton	1	0	1	2	0/4	33

Attendance:  2,063
3 Stars:  1) Olvecky – MIL  2) Pickard – MIL  3) Desharnais – HAM

December 18	1	2	3	Tot	PP	SOG
Hamilton	2	0	2	4	0/5	23
Adirondack	0	0	0	0	0/7	26

Attendance:  3,508
3 Stars:  1) Desjardins – HAM  2) Desharnais – HAM  3)
Stewart – HAM

December 19	1	2	3	Tot	PP	SOG
Hamilton	0	3	1	4	2/6	34
Hartford	0	1	0	1	0/5	26

Attendance:  3,370
3 Stars:  1) Subban – HAM  2) Desharnais – HAM  3) Sanford – HAM

December 20	1	2	3	OT	Tot	PP	SOG
Hamilton	1	2	1	1	5	2/5	45
Abbotsford	1	2	1	0	4	1/4	26

Attendance:  2,777
3 Stars:  1) Darche – HAM  2) Pouliot – HAM  3) Johnson – RCH

Stats:

Benoit Pouliot made his season debut with
Hamilton playing all 3 games over the weekend.  His conditioning stint
expires later this week.

SKATERS

#	Player	GP	G	A	+/-	SH	PIMS
5	Alex Henry	4	0	1	+2	4	4
6	Chad Anderson	1	0	0	E	1	2
7	Yannick Weber	4	0	1	E	5	4
10	J.T. Wyman	4	1	2	+1	9	0
12	Andrew Conboy	2	0	0	-1	2	7
15	Mike Glumac	3	0	2	+1	8	4
16	Gregory Stewart	3	1	1	E	6	2
17	Benoit Pouliot	3	1	2	+1	11	4
19	Brock Trotter	4	1	1	+2	6	0
20	Ryan Russell	3	0	0	-2	8	0
21	Mathieu Darche	4	4	1	+2	10	0
25	Ryan White	4	1	0	E	10	6
26	Grant Stevenson	3	0	2	E	6	2
27	Tom Pyatt	3	0	1	+1	5	0
29	Eric Neilson	1	0	0	E	0	5
32	Frederic St. Denis	1	0	0	+1	0	2
44	Shawn Belle	3	0	0	E	2	2
51	David Desharnais	4	3	2	+4	10	2
61	Andre Benoit	4	0	1	+2	5	4
72	Mathieu Carle	4	1	0	+2	8	0
76	P.K. Subban	3	1	2	+3	5	0
85	Mikael Johansson	3	0	1	E	2	0
91	Ben Maxwell	4	1	1	+4	12	2

GOALIES

#	Player	Record	SV%	GAA
1	Curtis Sanford	1-1-0	.907	2.01
30	Cedrick Desjardins	2-0-0	.923	1.99

Leaders:

Goals: Darche/Desharnais
(11)
Assists: Brock Trotter (17)
Points: Brock Trotter (26)
+/-: P.K. Subban (+15)
PIMS: Eric Neilson (79)
Shots: Mike Glumac (92)

This Week:

December 26: Hamilton vs Rochester

A Decade of Deals

Last month, the Habs made a deal the day after
I wrote an article saying don’t get your hopes up for one due to the team’s
tendency to hold off on deals in November.  This time, I’m quite confident
that the same thing won’t happen this month (there’s a trade freeze in effect
until midnight on Saturday).  Over the last 10 years, the Habs have made a
whopping 3 trades which meant it was really easy to condense the list into the 3
most notable deals of the decade.  As has been the case in the past months,
none of them are particularly significant either.

1) December 18, 2000 – Habs acquire Chad Kilger from Edmonton for Sergei
Zholtok.  It’s about this time that the search for that coveted power
forward began with the Habs hoping Kilger would be the answer after bouncing
around for a while.  He wasn’t and was waived to Toronto a few years later;
the search for that power forward lasted an entire decade (and will continue for
a while by the looks of it).

2) December 7, 2000 – Habs acquire Gino Odjick from Philadelphia for PJ
Stock and a 6th round pick.  If nothing else, Odjick’s stint in Montreal
was a memorable one, though moreso for the manner in which he left the
organization.  By the way, the player selected with that 6th rounder? 
Dennis Seidenberg who is currently with the Florida Panthers.

3) December 15, 2006 – Habs acquire Mathieu Biron from San Jose for
Patrick Traverse.  The Habs had acquired Traverse off waivers earlier on in
the season as injury depth, much to the chagrin of fans across the country. 
Biron went straight to Hamilton and then to Switzerland while Traverse stayed in
San Jose’s system until this season (he’s in Germany now).

Final Thought

As soon as the Guillaume Latendresse to
Minnesota deal happened, I immediately became greatly concerned about the future
of Maxim Lapierre.  Having had a few weeks to evaluate things, my fears
appear to be justified.  Lapierre has become the face of the locals (in
terms of players), and let’s face it, as a player who is essentially a 4th
liner, he shouldn’t be the face of anything when it comes to this team.  As
a result, his play is under more scrutiny than it really should be and
expectations are frankly too high on him.  It’s unfortunate as I think he
brings things to the team that are beneficial (faceoff play and some physicality
in particular), but because of the added pressure, his days are likely all but
numbered with the Canadiens, as the team will deem that he doesn’t have what it
takes to help the team anymore.  It takes a certain kind of player to be
able to handle the hometown pressure – Latendresse clearly didn’t have it and
now with the extra scrutiny in place, Lapierre doesn’t seem to be able to
either.  I hope I’m wrong, I really do as I like Lapierre, but let’s just
say I’m not expecting to see anything change in the near future.

The
capsheet is
now updated with Andrei Markov coming off LTIR – projected cap space has reduced
dramatically as a result..  If you have a question regarding this article,
please feel free to
drop me a line at
[email protected].