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HW Recap: Saving the best for last

The Habs started the week off terribly but
finished strong with a convincing win in the Centennial Game on Friday night. 
In Hamilton, the shutout streak came to an end, but the team still picked up 3
of 4 points.  With shutouts in mind, we take a closer look at how the 7
netminders in the organization are faring this year in the Goalie Zone, while
the Final Thought assesses how Scott Gomez’s deal isn’t as difficult to trade as
some may think.  This, plus the 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

Carey Price

1 The undisputed #1 goalie
now…until he has a bad start at least.
2 Mike Cammalleri 3 Started the
week in a bit of a slump but ended it on a hot streak.

3
Tomas Plekanec 2 Lost something in his game
while he was the top C, needs to rebound.
4 Roman Hamrlik 4 If he keeps
this up, he’ll be the highest paid "unsung hero" ever.

5
Glen Metropolit 6 Just when you think he’s
cooled off for good, he goes and gets 2 points.
6 Scott Gomez 9 Struggled vs
Toronto but was a force vs Buffalo and Boston with 3 points.

7
Josh Gorges 7 Brought some offence to the
table while blocking anything in sight.
8 Andrei Kostitsyn 5 Didn’t play
poorly, but clearly was the weak element on his line this week.

9
Max Pacioretty 9 I won’t say he’s arrived (too
early), but he’s been great the last while.
10 Jaroslav Spacek 8 Looks more
comfortable out there lately, it shows in his offensive game.

11
Jaroslav Halak 6 Sure he was rusty, but there’s
no way to sugarcoat how bad he was.
12 Travis Moen 10 The spark in
his game has been lacking for a while now.

13
Hal Gill 14 Showed why he was brought in
as a defensive specialist against the B’s.
14 Sergei Kostitsyn 17 Second
straight good week, he gives the team 2 decent offensive lines.

15
Ryan O’Byrne 12 A couple of shaky moments, but
continues to play reasonably well.
16 Tom Pyatt 16 One of these
days he’s going to have to find a way to get a point or two.

17
Paul Mara 13 For a d-man with some
offensive pop, we’ve yet to see it so far this year.
18 Ryan White 11 Struggled a
bit, hopefully the trip to Hamilton gets him going again.
19 Marc-Andre Bergeron 14 Hopefully
he’s found a permanent home as a 4th line winger.
20 Matt D’Agostini 20 Looks like
the player from last year than the D’Agostini of last season.
21 Maxim Lapierre 15 Already
reverting back to the poor performing Lapierre of last month.
22 Georges Laraque 22 Didn’t do
anything to help, but he finally didn’t hurt the team either.
23 Kyle Chipchura 20 What an
underwhelming sendoff game, -2 in less than 2 minutes.

Dropped from the rankings: Jay Leach (18 –
waivers-SJ), David Desharnais (19 – minors), and J.T. Wyman (21 – minors).

 The Dog
Pound

Though Hamilton’s shutout streak came to an end
on Saturday, Cedrick Desjardins has a personal streak going of roughly 158
minutes.

 Results:

December 4
1
2 3
Tot

PP

SOG
Toronto 0 0 0 0 0/4 15
Hamilton 1 1 1 3 0/4 31

Attendance:  6,092
3 Stars:
  1) Desjardins – HAM  2) Trotter – HAM  3) Subban – HAM

December 5
1
2 3 3
Tot

PP

SOG
Hamilton 0 3 2 0 5 1/3 47
Toronto 2 2 1 1 6 1/3 27

Attendance:  3,266
3 Stars:
  1) Deveaux – TOR  2) Stalberg – TOR  3) Scott – TOR

Stats:

As the Habs slowly return to health, the
Bulldogs are starting to get some players back; both Ryan White and J.T. Wyman
rejoined the club this week.

SKATERS

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

GOALIES

# Player Record SV% GAA
1 Curtis Sanford 0-1-0 .778 5.61
30 Cedrick Desjardins 1-0-0 1.000 0.00

Leaders:

Goals: Mathieu Darche (7)
Assists: Brock Trotter (14)
Points: Brock Trotter (20)
+/-: P.K. Subban (+9)
PIMS: Eric Neilson (70)
Shots: Mike Glumac (79)

This Week:

December 9:
Abbotsford vs Hamilton
December 13: Abbotsford vs Hamilton

Goalie
Zone

With Carey Price stepping it up for the Habs
and Cedrick Desjardins on a hot streak for Hamilton, let’s look a little deeper
at the organization’s goalies and see how each one is doing so far this season.


Player

League

Record

GA

SF

SVS

SO

GAA

SV%
Carey Price NHL 8-10-2 57 653 596 0 2.77 .913
Jaroslav
Halak
NHL 5-4-0 27 255 228 0
3.00
.894
Cedrick Desjardins AHL 6-4-1 17 271 254 3 1.63 .937
Curtis
Sanford
AHL 8-4-2 32 406 374 2
2.14
.921
Robert Mayer ECHL 5-4-0 30 230 200 0 3.36 .870
Jason
Missiaen
OHL 14-12-2 103 1,077 974 0
3.89
.904
Petteri Simila OHL 1-4-3 38 350 312 0 4.14 .891

Desjardins and Sanford also have a shared
shutout from a game last week.

Final
Thought

With Scott Gomez’s struggles this season
(though not so much this week), talk has inevitably shifted to the debate of why
the Habs opted to acquire him, handcuffing the team salary cap wise in the
process.  Looking at his salary situation, I’m not so convinced that his
deal is as bad of an albatross as some people make it out to be.  Confused? 
Here’s how – let’s look at the remaining breakdown of his deal first:


Year

Salary

Cap Hit (rounded)
2009-10 8,000,000 7,357,143
2010-11 8,000,000 7,357,143
2011-12 7,500,000 7,357,143
2012-13
5,500,000
7,357,143
2013-14 4,500,000 7,357,143

In particular, I look to the last 2 years of
the deal as being a good contract to trade rather than a bad one.  In an
era of escalating salaries, small market teams are struggling to spend to the
cap floor.  Gomez’s (and other front loaded) deals will soon begin to serve
as opportunities for these teams to help get to the cap floor without not
actually spending that much in actual salary.  Let’s use Nashville as an
example, a team that only barely spends to the floor and complains about having
to spend that much.  If they were to acquire Gomez in the final year of his
contract, they’d essentially be saving roughly $2.8 million in actual money
assuming they continue to be a floor team.  This is something that’d be
valuable to them which means that the Habs may actually be able to get something
for him – perhaps not a lot, but it would free them from his cap hit obligations
earlier.  In fact, there’s 2 years where this applies – as a fan, could you
live with Gomez for 2 more seasons?  All of a sudden, it doesn’t seem quite
so bad.

A quick note on the
capsheet
updates will be limited until the middle of the month, my apologies in advance
for the inconvenience.  In the meantime, if you have a question regarding this article,
please feel free to
drop me a line at
b.larose@habsworld.net
.

Note: The Recap will return to its regular Sunday publication slot next week.

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