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Montreal came back from the Olympic break well
as they picked up five of six points to at least temporarily move into second in
the Atlantic Division.  In Hamilton, while the playoff hopes are a lot
bleaker, they too had a strong week, winning both of their games.  With the
trade deadline almost here, my Final Thought breaks down the cap situation and
how the team has a lot less space than you might think.

Cheers
and Jeers

Cheers to…

1) Snapping a lengthy drought, which is
something that George Parros accomplished this past week.  His assist
against Pittsburgh was his first point in nearly a year.  His last helper
was March 2nd, 2013. 

2) Daniel Briere, who continues to thrive in a
fourth line role.  It makes little sense, but he seems to have success
playing with the likes of Moen instead of more offensively-talented players
(like when he is with Plekanec and Gionta on their line).  Whatever works,
I suppose.

3) Peter Budaj, even though the numbers don’t
bear it out.  He deserved a better fate against Detroit (but arguably
lucked into a win against the Penguins) while he was sharp against Toronto. 
The Habs picked up five of six points with their backup between the pipes, it’s
hard to ask for much more than that.

Jeers to…

1) The criticism of Alex Galchenyuk’s ice time
early on.  While it seemed that many fans wanted him to get big minutes
right away, I give the coaching staff credit for being careful with his ice
time.  It’s important to remember that before the Detroit game, he had
missed nearly seven weeks.  With a back-to-back and 3-in-4 on the horizon,
the smart move wasn’t to give him a big role right away, but rather to ease him
back in.

2) Rene Bourque, who seems to be playing like
he wouldn’t mind being traded.  The problem is that when a player plays
that way, especially around the trade deadline, it makes it a lot harder to
trade them.  With players like Weise and White giving the lineup a spark
when they were in, that should have sent a message to him to play with more
energy.  Sadly, the message hasn’t been received.

3) The powerplay, which managed to allow a pair
of shorthanded goals in one week.  That’s almost as many as they had
allowed in the entire year up to that point.  Yes, the PP had some success
but a lot of that gets negated when teams are scoring on you 4-on-5.

StatPack:

SKATERS


#

Player

GP
G A +/- PIM SH TOI
6 Douglas Murray 3 0 0 -1 4 0 50:51
11 Brendan Gallagher 3 1 0 -1 0 8 53:37
14 Tomas Plekanec 3 0 1 E 0 2 63:24
15 George Parros 2 0 1 +1 0 0 12:00
17 Rene Bourque 3 0 1 -1 2 4 37:21
21 Brian Gionta 3 1 0 E 0 14 56:18
22 Dale Weise 3 0 0 -2 0 0 29:13
24 Jarred Tinordi 3 0 0 E 0 1 42:22
26 Josh Gorges 3 0 2 -1 0 1 69:30
27 Alex Galchenyuk 3 1 1 +1 0 6 42:17
32 Travis Moen 3 0 0 +1 0 0 44:17
48 Daniel Briere 3 2 2 +3 2 9 37:09
49 Michael Bournival 2 0 1 +1 0 0 16:55
51 David Desharnais 3 0 3 -1 2 2 61:11
53 Ryan White 1 0 0 E 0 0 9:04
55 Francis Bouillon 1 0 0 E 0 0 14:02
67 Max Pacioretty 3 3 1 -1 0 16 65:45
74 Alexei Emelin 3 1 0 +1 4 5 67:47
76 P.K. Subban 3 1 1 -2 4 8 73:24
79 Andrei Markov 3 0 5 +1 2 2 80:50
81 Lars Eller 3 0 0 -1 2 1 44:15

GOALIES


#

Player

Record

SV%

GAA
30 Peter Budaj 2-0-1 .875 3.12

SHOOTOUT
– SKATERS

# Player G/ATT
51 David Desharnais 1/1
81 Lars Eller 0/1

SHOOTOUT
– GOALIES

# Player SVS/ATT
30 Peter Budaj 3/3

Scoring
Leaders:

Goals: Max Pacioretty (29)
Assists: P.K. Subban (32)
Points: Pacioretty/Subban (41)
+/-: Tomas Plekanec (+9)
PIMS: Brandon Prust (105)
Shots: Max Pacioretty (197)

The Dog
Pound

By the time Hamilton played their first game of
the week, they were tied for dead last in the Western Conference.  By the
end of their final game, they now find themselves just two points out of ninth. 
It’s amazing how tight the standings are, two straight wins for the Bulldogs
really made a difference.

News and
Notes:

– Darren Dietz remains out of the lineup with a
lower body injury.  He’s listed as day-to-day.  Jordon Southorn has
been signed to a PTO in Dietz’s absence.

– With Dustin Tokarski up with the big club,
Mike Condon was recalled from ECHL Wheeling to back up Robert Mayer.

– Blueliner Greg Pateryn has ten goals this
season for the Bulldogs.  The rest of the defencemen on the active roster
combined have nine.

– Lines from the most recent game:

Forwards:

Andrighetto – Macenauer – Thomas
Blunden – Dumont – Leblanc
Tarnasky – St. Pierre – Fournier
Courtnall – Nattinen – Holland

Defence:

Beaulieu – Pateryn
Chouinard – Ellis
McIver – Schiestel

Results:

February 28:

Hamilton 3, Lake Erie 2 (SO)

March 1:

Hamilton 5, Toronto 2

StatPack:

SKATERS


#

Player

GP

G

A

+/-

SH

PIMS
2 Greg Pateryn 2 1 1 +2 8 0
8 Nathan Beaulieu 2 0 1 +2 7 0
9 Justin Courtnall 2 1 1 +2 4 0
11 Nathan McIver 2 0 0 +1 0 12
12 Maxime Macenauer 2 0 2 E 3 2
14 Michael Blunden 2 2 1 +2 5 2
20 Louis Leblanc 2 0 1 +2 3 7
22 Drew Schiestel 2 0 0 +2 3 0
23 Joonas Nattinen 2 0 0 +2 0 0
27 Sven Andrighetto 2 2 0 -1 9 0
37 Patrick Holland 2 0 1 +1 4 0
40 Gabriel Dumont 2 1 1 +2 4 0
44 Morgan Ellis 2 0 0 -1 1 0
47 Stefan Fournier 2 0 0 +1 2 0
59 Joel Chouinard 2 0 0 E 3 0
74 Nick Tarnasky 2 0 0 E 3 7
92 Christian Thomas 2 0 1 -1 3 2
93 Martin St. Pierre 2 0 0 -1 2 0

GOALIES


#

Player

Record

SV%

GAA
29 Robert Mayer 2-0-0 .937 1.92

Scoring
Leaders:

Goals: Andrighetto/Dumont (14)
Assists: Martin St. Pierre (27)
Points: Martin St. Pierre (37)
+/-: Morgan Ellis (+9)
PIMS: Nick Tarnasky (109)
Shots: Gabriel Dumont (131)

Schedule:

March 7:
Oklahoma City vs Hamilton
March 8: W-B/Scranton vs Hamilton
March 9: Lake Erie vs Hamilton

Final
Thought

On trade deadline day, one of the
things you’ll see mentioned is how much cap space each team has.  With
Davis Drewiske coming off LTIR on Sunday (a prerequisite to going on waivers as
injured players can’t be waived…remember Blair Betts?), the Habs will be shown
as being around $7 million in full-season salary under the cap (closer to $8 M
if Dustin Tokarski is re-assigned by Wednesday).  Here’s the thing though,
though technically correct, the number is rather inflated.  Why?

Bonuses aren’t calculated in the
day-to-day cap projections, they’re added in after the year.  With the Habs
using so many rookies, including some in key roles, they’re highly likely to
have a bonus bill of several hundred thousand dollars.  Unfortunately,
bonus details in contracts aren’t readily available but if you estimate that
Alex Galchenyuk will hit one of his ‘A bonuses’ (for $212,500) and that Brendan
Gallagher will hit a good chunk of his bonuses (up to $185,000), you’re already
around the $400k mark.  Michael Bournival probably will get some of his
potential $210,000, likely in the games played department.

Speaking of games played, players
can get up to $25,000 in bonus money for 5 GP in a season.  Several other
rookies have already hit that threshold, particularly Nathan Beaulieu, Jarred
Tinordi, and Louis Leblanc; the latter two are or will soon be also eligible for
a 10 GP bonus.  Since they’re all first rounders, it’s logical to assume
their GP bonuses will be maxed, meaning there’s likely another $100k in bonuses
when you factor in the 10 GP ones for the blueliners. 

That means the Habs need to keep
around $550-600k for bonuses based on what has transpired already and
potentially more.  Add in another hundred grand or so for injury callups
and that means that the team needs to be under the cap by $700,000 to avoid any
bonus penalty carrying over into next year.

How does that affect the $7 (or
$8) million figure above? 

Assuming the Habs send Tokarski
down soon coupled with Drewiske’s farming out on Monday, the Habs will be
projected to finish the year at about $1.6 million under the cap if no other
roster moves are made.  $700k out of $1.6 M is about 44%.  So the
actual amount of full-season cap space should be reduced by 44% to figure out
what the Canadiens really have to spend.  Depending on the Tokarski
situation, that puts the true amount available between $3.9 M and $4.4 M in
full-season salary.  That’s what the team actually has to spend, even
though the number you will see on the network of your choice on Wednesday will
be considerably higher.