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The road was not a friendly place for the Habs
as their Western trip ended with just one win in four games.  In Hamilton,
home ice wasn’t a friendly place for the Bulldogs as they only managed a single
point in three contests.  Speaking of those Bulldogs, the report of them
moving to St. John’s came as quite a surprise; my Final Thoughts muses about why
there has to be more to the story than is currently out there.

Cheers
and Jeers

Cheers to…

1) The quiet contributions from Brendan
Gallagher.  Of the two third year players, Alex Galchenyuk gets most of the
attention while the other two regular top liners (Max Pacioretty and David
Desharnais) get a lot of the spotlight for various reasons.  Meanwhile,
Gallagher just goes about his business and has put together a pretty good
stretch as of late, recording 14 points in 18 games since the start of February. 
He may not get the attention but he’s getting the job done.

2) Jeff Petry, who has had little difficulty
adjusting to playing on a new team.  He already has had a pair of different
blueline partners and that caused few problems.  His ice time has already
increased significantly and there were no issues there either.  That’s a
great way to make a first impression not to mention giving the second pairing a
nice upgrade.

3) The new-look fourth line.  The two
additions from Buffalo have given that unit a boost in skill and energy while
Brandon Prust – finally in the role he should be in – provides some grit and is
a solid complement to the newcomers.  This is a unit that can play well
defensively but also are good enough to spend some time in the offensive zone
which is a great spot for the fourth line to play.

Jeers to…

1) Michel Therrien’s criticism of Devante
Smith-Pelly’s fitness level publicly.  We know it’s an issue, all you have
to do is watch him play.  It has been a concern for a couple of years now. 
Therrien doesn’t need to call him out less than two weeks after he joined the
team.  This is something that should stay behind closed doors and given
where they are in the season, the big changes they’ll want him to make probably
won’t start until the offseason anyways.  I’m sure it was used as a
motivating tactic but I think it may do more harm than good.

2) The California curse.  While the Habs
had a few good moments in their three-game stint, there were way more bad ones
than good ones, a problem they’ve had for quite a while now.  Give the
Sharks, Ducks, and Kings credit where credit is due – they did play well and are
good teams – but it’s rare that the Canadiens are at their best when they travel
to face these teams.  That needs to change one of these years.  At
least the trip is over…

3) Dustin Tokarski, who is quickly making his
appearances feel like ‘guaranteed loss’ nights.  He has just two wins in
his last nine starts and in one of those he allowed four goals.  In fact,
he has allowed three or more goals against in eight of those nine games. 
Backup goalies aren’t going to steal a lot of games but asking Tokarski to allow
less than three goals with some sort of regularity doesn’t seem to be that crazy
of a request.

StatPack:


Skaters
# Player GP G A +/- PIM SOG TOI
8 Brandon
Prust
4 0 0 -1 12 3 39:27
11 Brendan Gallagher 4 2 0 +1 0 14 69:40
14 Tomas
Plekanec
4 0 2 +1 2 5 72:31
15 P-A Parenteau 1 0 0 E 0 0 10:21
17
Torrey Mitchell
3 0 0 -2 2 2 32:55
20 Manny Malhotra 1 0 0 E 0 0 13:17

21

Devante Smith-Pelly
4 0 1 E 2 11 53:56
22 Dale Weise 4 0 1 +1 2 2 54:41

25

Jacob de la Rose
4 0 0 E 4 8 57:23

26
Jeff Petry 4 0 0 E 0 5 89:10
27 Alex Galchenyuk 4 1 0 -1 0 7 63:33
28
Nathan Beaulieu
4 0 0 +1 0 1 55:03

32

Brian Flynn
3 0 0 -2 0 5 30:11

43

Mike Weaver
1 0 0 E 0 0 5:02
51 David Desharnais 4 0 3 E 0 1 72:19
55 Sergei Gonchar 3 0 0 E 2 0 38:18
67 Max
Pacioretty
4 1 1 +1 2 20 78:39
76 P.K. Subban 4 0 1 -1 0 8 111:18
77 Tom Gilbert 4 1 0 E 0 5 90:03
79 Andrei
Markov
4 0 1 E 0 1 101:14
81 Lars Eller 4 1 0 -2 4 13 62:33

Goalies
# Player Record GAA SV%

31
Carey Price 1-2-0 2.02 .938

35
Dustin Tokarski 0-0-1 2.78 .897

Shootout – Skaters
# Player G/ATT
27 Alex
Galchenyuk
0/1
51 David Desharnais 1/1
67 Max
Pacioretty
1/1
81 Lars Eller 0/1

Shootout – Goalies
# Player SVS/ATT
35 Dustin
Tokarski
1/4

Team
Leaders:

Goals: Max Pacioretty (31)

Assists: P.K. Subban (37)
Points: Max Pacioretty (57)
+/-: Max Pacioretty (+37) – 1st in NHL
PIMS: Brandon Prust (114)
Shots: Max Pacioretty (258) – 2nd in NHL

The Dog
Pound

Although the trade deadline yielded a boost to
Hamilton’s lineup with a pair of key youngsters returning, it didn’t pay off in
the standings as the Bulldogs managed just a single point in their last week of
home games for the entire month.

News and
Notes:

– Mac Bennett’s upper body injury will keep him
sidelined for 2-4 weeks while Gabriel Dumont missed Saturday’s game with an
illness.

– With Pateryn and Bournival returning, Bobby
Shea was sent back to Wheeling mid-week while Shane Bakker was released from his
PTO.  He too is returning to Wheeling as has Stefan Fournier after getting
sent down earlier in the week.

– Daniel Carr is Hamilton’s first 20-goal
scorer since Andreas Engqvist in 2011-12.  He’s the first rookie to hit
that plateau since David Desharnais and Ben Maxwell back in 2008-09.

– Lines from the most recent game:

Forwards:

Carr – Hudon – Andrighetto
Bowman – Hensick – Tangradi
Bournival – Macenauer – Thomas
Crisp – Dowell – Sorkin

Defence:

Tinordi – Drewiske
Pateryn – Allen
Finley – Ellis

Results:

March 4:

Adirondack 5, Hamilton 4 (OT)

March 6:

Rochester 3, Hamilton 1

March 7:

Utica 3, Hamilton 2

StatPack:


Skaters
# Player GP G A +/- SOG PIMS
2 Greg Pateryn 3 1 0 -1 2 0
3 Morgan Ellis 3 0 1 E 5 0
4 Davis Drewiske 3 0 0 +1 8 0
5 Jarred
Tinordi
3 0 0 -3 4 0
6 Bryan Allen 3 0 0 -4 3 2
7 Darren Dietz 2 0 0 -4 0 4

10
Charles
Hudon
3 1 1 -2 8 0
11 Daniel Carr 3 1 0 E 7 0
12 Maxime Macenauer 1 0 0 E 0 0

15
Drayson Bowman 3 1 2 -1 6 0

17
T.J. Hensick 3 1 2 -2 7 0
18 Jake Dowell 3 0 0 -2 4 0
19 Christian Thomas 3 0 1 -2 9 2

21
Nick Sorkin 3 0 0 E 5 0

23
Connor Crisp 1 0 0 -1 1 0

25
Eric
Tangradi
3 1 2 -2 11 4

26
Joe Finley 1 0 0 +1 0 0
27 Sven Andrighetto 3 0 2 -2 5 2

28
Michael
Bournival
3 0 1 -2 9 0

29
Sahir Gill 2 0 0 -1 0 0

40
Gabriel
Dumont
2 1 0 -2 4 6

Goalies
# Player Record GAA SV%
1 Mike Condon 0-1-1 3.88 .878
39 Joey MacDonald 0-1-0 2.03 .931

Team
Leaders:

Goals: Daniel Carr (20)
Assists: Charles Hudon (37)
Points: Charles Hudon (50)
+/-: Daniel Carr (+16)
PIMS: Joe Finley (105)
Shots: T.J. Hensick (146)

Schedule:

March 10:
Hamilton vs Adirondack
March 13: Hamilton vs Rochester
March 15: Toronto vs Hamilton (in Montreal)

Final
Thought

While we’ve likely all expected the Habs to
pack up their farm team for Laval in a few years, I don’t think there were many
who thought they’d make an interim move before then.  That appears to be
the case though after Saturday’s report (one that wasn’t exactly denied by
anyone from the Bulldogs or Canadiens which says a lot) as the team is
apparently bound for St. John’s next season.  While the report suggests the
deal was struck with the Habs, I have to think this isn’t being done
voluntarily.

There’s no doubt the team will benefit from
better attendance as St. John’s is among the league leaders while several poor
to mediocre seasons in Hamilton have driven fans away but the positives are
harder to find beyond that.  It’s harder to recall players from St. John’s
due to their location and the associated logistics; at times recalls have to be
made a day earlier than required.  They also will be subjected to a very
tough schedule full of extended home stands and long road trips, playing two or
three game mini-series against each opponent they face to keep travel costs
down.  Neither of these are things that the Habs should willingly want to
sign up for. 

St. John’s is a very strong AHL market in terms
of support.  The arena is full pretty much every night and the buzz around
the team is a lot better than the general indifference that surrounds the
current edition of the Bulldogs.  Despite that, this will be the fourth
different team to play there in a decade.  The cons of having a team there
outweigh the pros which is why I have a hard time believing this is something
the Habs want to do, even if it is only for a couple of years until the Laval
arena is ready.

Assuming this report is indeed true, I have to
think the Canadiens are getting pushed out.  Otherwise, why wouldn’t they
just stay in Hamilton, where they already have another year on their lease as it
is?  I suspect we’re only hearing part of the story so far and I’m quite
curious to find out the rest of what’s going on that is making this rumoured
move happen.