HabsWorld.net --
The Habs showed this week that resiliency can
go a long way, picking up 5 of 6 points despite more additions to the infirmary.
In Hamilton, the Bulldogs went on a 4-game Western road swing and came home with
a pair of wins. Looking back at a decade of deals for November, does the
recent acquisition of Jay Leach actually make the top 3? The final thought looks at the
Tomas Plekanec situation; speaking of which, did he retain his top spot in the
Power Rankings? Read on to find out.
|
Power |
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 | Had a hand in 5 of the 7 goals this week and was solid in his own end. |
| 2 | Carey Price | 2 | The fire is back and he seems to have re-taken the #1 job…for now. |
3 |
Mike Cammalleri | 3 | Stepped up when the team needed him with the week’s last 3 goals. |
| 4 | Roman Hamrlik | 7 | Steady in his own zone though it’d be nice if he could bring some offence. |
5 |
Glen Metropolit | 4 | Didn’t score, but played well on all of the different lines he was thrown on. |
| 6 | Josh Gorges | 9 | Seems to have found his comfort level as his play has improved lately. |
7 |
Travis Moen | 12 | The guy who’s never been a goal scorer find ways to score somehow. |
| 8 | Andrei Kostitsyn | 13 | Finally notched his 2nd of the year while setting up 3 more. |
9 |
Scott Gomez | 8 | You can only play injured for so long, hopefully the rest gets him going. |
| 10 | Jaroslav Spacek | 11 | Appears to be looking for his shot more often which should help the PP. |
11 |
Paul Mara | 10 | 2 assists but his penalty vs Detroit couldn’t have been at a worse time. |
| 12 | Max Pacioretty | 18 | It’s a wonder what confidence (and the same linemates) can do. |
13 |
Tom Pyatt | 17 | Earned Jacques Martin’s trust and he certainly didn’t let his coach down. |
| 14 | Ryan O’Byrne | 13 | Tough situation to come back to, bailing out Bergeron’s mistakes. |
15 |
Ryan White | 14 | Like the physical edge, but the offensive game has disappeared. |
| 16 | Jay Leach | 15 | Unlike several others this season, he didn’t ‘earn’ his benching. |
17 |
Maxim Lapierre | 19 | Didn’t play particularly well, the shootout winner counts in my books. |
| 18 | Marc-Andre Bergeron | 16 | He’d be much better off aiming away from defenders’ shins… |
| 19 | Kyle Chipchura | 20 | The 4th line checker that somehow doesn’t get a chance to play the PK. |
| 20 | Guillaume Latendresse | 21 | All together now, "It is okay to stand in front of the net, don’t be afraid." |
| 21 | Gregory Stewart | 21 | Didn’t help the team any, but unlike the one below, didn’t hurt it either. |
| 22 | Georges Laraque |
20 |
Well, he found a way to get people to talk about him again… |
Dropped from the rankings: Brian Gionta
(3-injured) and Jaroslav Halak (6-DNP)
|
The Dog |
Hamilton split a quartet of key divisional
games, all on the road this week. They remain 2nd in the division, 3
points behind Rochester who have 2 games in hand on the ‘Dogs.
|
Results: |
| November 17 | 1 |
2 | 3 | Tot |
PP |
SOG |
| Hamilton | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1/5 | 34 |
| Abbotsford | 1 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 1/6 | 41 |
Attendance: 3,591
3 Stars: 1) Negrin – ABB 2) Pelech – ABB 3) Irving – ABB
| November 18 | 1 |
2 | 3 | Tot |
PP |
SOG |
| Hamilton | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 1/3 | 31 |
| Abbotsford | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1/4 | 33 |
Attendance: 3,601
3 Stars: 1) Sanford – HAM 2) Kronwall – ABB 3) Desharnais –
HAM
| November 20 | 1 |
2 | 3 | Tot |
PP |
SOG |
| Hamilton | 1 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 1/7 | 38 |
| Manitoba | 1 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 0/1 | 20 |
Attendance: 8,415
3 Stars: 1) Schneider – MAN 2) Bliznak – MAN 3) Keane –
MAN
| November 21 | 1 |
2 | 3 | OT | Tot |
PP |
SOG |
| Hamilton | 1 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 2/4 | 36 |
| Manitoba | 0 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 1/7 | 24 |
Attendance: 13,582
3 Stars: 1) Shirokov – MAN 2) Kostitsyn – HAM 3) Rosa –
MAN
|
Stats: |
In an effort to bolster their offence, the
Bulldogs brought back Ryan Kinasewich on a PTO this week. Kinasewich was
lighting up the ECHL with 27 points in only 12 games prior to him re-joining the
team.
|
SKATERS |
| # | Player | GP | G | A | +/- | SH | PIMS |
| 5 | Alex Henry | 4 | 0 | 0 | -2 | 4 | 22 |
| 6 | Chad Anderson | 4 | 0 | 0 | -4 | 5 | 2 |
| 7 | Yannick Weber | 4 | 0 | 0 | -1 | 13 | 2 |
| 8 | Maxime Lacroix | 3 | 0 | 0 | -2 | 7 | 0 |
| 10 | J.T. Wyman | 4 | 1 | 2 | -1 | 5 | 2 |
| 12 | Andrew Conboy | 4 | 1 | 0 | -2 | 6 | 8 |
| 15 | Mike Glumac | 4 | 0 | 2 | E | 21 | 0 |
| 16 | Gregory Stewart | 2 | 0 | 0 | -1 | 3 | 6 |
| 19 | Brock Trotter | 4 | 1 | 2 | -1 | 10 | 4 |
| 20 | Ryan Russell | 4 | 0 | 0 | E | 5 | 0 |
| 28 | Ryan Kinasewich | 3 | 0 | 0 | -1 | 2 | 0 |
| 29 | Eric Neilson | 4 | 0 | 1 | -2 | 1 | 17 |
| 32 | Frederic St. Denis | 1 | 0 | 0 | -1 | 0 | 0 |
| 44 | Shawn Belle | 4 | 0 | 0 | -3 | 6 | 4 |
| 51 | David Desharnais | 4 | 3 | 2 | E | 9 | 4 |
| 61 | Andre Benoit | 4 | 0 | 2 | -2 | 5 | 2 |
| 72 | Mathieu Carle | 3 | 2 | 2 | E | 8 | 0 |
| 74 | Sergei Kostitsyn | 4 | 1 | 3 | -2 | 8 | 2 |
| 76 | P.K. Subban | 4 | 2 | 0 | +2 | 11 | 6 |
| 91 | Ben Maxwell | 4 | 0 | 2 | -4 | 10 | 2 |
|
GOALIES |
| # | Player | Record | SV% | GAA |
| 1 | Curtis Sanford | 2-1-0 | .898 | 3.05 |
| 30 | Cedrick Desjardins | 0-1-0 | .893 | 2.79 |
|
Leaders: |
Goals: Mathieu Darche (7)
Assists: Brock Trotter (11)
Points: Brock Trotter (15)
+/-: Tom Pyatt (+8)
PIMS: Eric Neilson (63)
Shots: Mathieu Darche (66)
|
This Week: |
November 24: Rochester vs Hamilton
November 25: Houston vs Hamilton
November 27: Hamilton vs Lake Erie
November 28: Hamilton vs Lake Erie
|
A Decade |
Last month we discovered that the Habs
generally don’t make a lot of early season roster moves, preferring to let
things play out a bit. Over the past decade, the same can be said with the
exception of #1 on this top-3 list. Here are the 3 most notable deals for
the month of November between 2000-2009:
1) November 21, 2001: Acquiring Donald Audette and Shaun Van Allen from
Dallas in exchange for Martin Rucinsky and Benoit Brunet. Audette had a
great start with the Habs before his freak injury and an even better playoff
tying for the team lead in points. It didn’t last though as he was bought
out during the 03-04 season. The other 3 players involved in the deal
either left at the end of the season or in the case of Rucinsky, traded again
during the same campaign.
2) November 6, 2009: Claiming Jay Leach off re-entry waivers from New
Jersey. Yep, the list goes downhill from here. If nothing else, he’s
on the active NHL roster which can’t be said for the player who was acquired in
#3.
3) November 5, 2008: Signing David Desharnais to a 2-year, 2-way deal.
If nothing else, Desharnais has been solid for the Bulldogs; his play since
returning from injury may warrant a callup to the big club in the
not-too-distant future.
Honourable mentions: November 13, 2007: Losing Garth Murray off re-entry
waivers to Florida (actually affected the team’s salary cap situation), November
29, 2005: Losing Ron Hainsey off waivers to Columbus.
|
Final |
"Sign him, get it done already!" is the
recurring sentiment as Tomas Plekanec is off to the best start of his career.
The funny part of course is that most of these people are the same ones who were
flabbergasted when the team gave him a 1-year, $2.75 M deal prior to his
arbitration hearing. It wasn’t the 1 year element that had people
confused, but the $2.75 M, too much for a player coming off a subpar year.
Does 25-ish games really make that much of a difference?
For the record, I’ve no objections to the team opening up extension talks, but
they’re going to go nowhere. This is the same player who apparently turned
down a 5 year, $25 M deal two seasons ago (though all parties deny that on the
record), now he’s playing better than he was then. Then there’s the matter
of the cap – the Habs have a boatload committed beyond this year already and the
team’s lone prime buyout candidate (Laraque) just happens to be injured enough
that there will probably be cause to seek an injuction on buying him out (like
Dan Cloutier with the Kings last season). In reality, the team can’t
really afford to pay Plekanec any more than he’s getting now when it comes to
the cap next season.
Pretty much, here’s how I look at it. No matter what, they can’t really
afford to sign him now, so why not wait it out? If he keeps it up, he
wasn’t fitting in the team’s price range anyways but if he slows down, there may
be a chance to sign him at a more reasonable rate. There aren’t a whole
lot of instances where not negotiating during the season is a good thing, but
this may very well be one of them.
If you have a question regarding my
capsheet or this article,
please feel free to
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