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This week had it all for the Habs, a GM change,
a trade, a huge upset win, plus a pair of disappointing losses to the Flyers. 
In Hamilton, all the injuries/recalls finally caught up to them as they lost
both their contests.  Keeping up with our monthly segment, which February
deal was the biggest of the past decade for Montreal?  The Dominic Moore
deal wasn’t taken very well amongst most fans, so the Final Thought looks at a
few positives of the deal, 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	Brian Gionta	3	When the team struggled, he stepped up to at least give them a chance.
2	Tomas Plekanec	1	Came up huge vs the Caps but was largely invisible against the Flyers.
3	Scott Gomez	4	Like Gionta, really stepped up his game, particularly vs Philadelphia.
4	Jaroslav Halak	2	There’s no way to sugarcoat it, he was simply awful on Saturday night.
5	Carey Price	6	Wasn’t at the top of his game but did enough to snap Washington’s streak.
6	Roman Hamrlik	6	He struggled defensively but set up 4 goals to help make up for it.
7	Josh Gorges	8	It sounds a little strange but he’s been the anchor on D all season.
8	Andrei Markov	7	A decent game vs the Caps before going down with another injury.
9	Glen Metropolit	13	Looked a lot stronger this week, took him long enough for his second wind.
10	Jaroslav Spacek	9	Played with anedge to his game, an element we’ve yet to see much.
11	Sergei Kostitsyn	11	Phenomenal vs Washington; looked completely disinterested vs Philly.
12	P.K. Subban	–	Brought some energy and hustle to a team bereft of it against the Flyers.
13	Mathieu Darche	10	Lost some ice time with Moore’s acquisition but played okay.
14	Dominic Moore	–	A fairly strong debut with the Habs, scoring in his first game on the team.
15	Ryan O’Byrne	15	A couple of defensive miscues but still much better than last month.
16	David Desharnais	14	Looked very comfortable on the PP but uncomfortable playing 5-on-5.
17	Tom Pyatt	21	Had a very good week to help shoot him out of the ranking basement.
18	Travis Moen	16	2 assists, but when the Habs needed a boost physically, he didn’t show up.
19	Maxim Lapierre	20	Still getting moved around way too much but had a decent week.
20	Hal Gill	17	Didn’t back up Subban’s defensive mishaps like he was expected to.
21	Matt D’Agostini	23	Had some good shifts but got benched if he made just 1 mistake.
22	Ben Maxwell	21	Decent defensively but may be falling further down the depth chart now.

Dropped from the rankings: Benoit Pouliot (5
– injured), Marc-Andre Bergeron (12 – injured), Brock Trotter (17 – minors),
Ryan White (18 – minors), and Yannick Weber (22 – minors).

The Dog Pound

Hamilton’s winning streak came to an end as a
depleted lineup wasn’t able to find a way to pull out the W against a pair of
divisional rivals.

Results:

February 12	1	2	3	OT	SO	Tot	PP	SOG
Hamilton	1	2	1	0	0	4	2/5	38
Lake Erie	1	3	0	0	1	5	1/5	26

Attendance:  7,576
3 Stars:  1) Bradford – LE  2) Willsie – LE  3) Rowe – LE

February 13	1	2	3	Tot	PP	SOG
Abbotsford	1	0	1	2	1/4	24
Hamilton	1	0	0	1	0/5	21

Attendance:  5,643
3 Stars:  1) Watt – ABB  2) Belle – HAM  3) Shantz – ABB

Stats:

Saturday’s loss was a first for Hamilton this
season – this was the first time they were only able to dress 16 healthy skaters, 2 below
the normal.

SKATERS

#	Player	GP	G	A	+/-	SH	PIMS
5	Alex Henry	2	0	0	-1	1	0
6	Chad Anderson	2	0	0	-2	4	2
8	Maxime Lacroix	2	0	0	-1	2	0
10	J.T. Wyman	2	0	0	-1	1	2
12	Andrew Conboy	2	0	0	-2	2	4
15	Mike Glumac	2	0	0	E	4	2
16	Gregory Stewart	2	0	0	-1	1	4
18	Dany Masse	2	0	0	-1	3	0
19	Brock Trotter	2	1	1	+1	3	2
20	Ryan Russell	2	1	1	-2	8	0
23	Max Pacioretty	1	0	2	+2	7	0
25	Ryan White	2	0	0	+1	2	0
29	Eric Neilson	2	0	0	E	0	2
32	Frederic St. Denis	2	0	0	-1	1	0
44	Shawn Belle	2	2	0	+1	4	0
61	Andre Benoit	2	0	3	E	7	2
91	Ben Maxwell	2	1	2	+2	9	0

GOALIES

#	Player	Record	SV%	GAA
1	Curtis Sanford	0-1-1	.941	1.31
30	Cedrick Desjardins	0-0-0	.733	7.43

SHOOTOUT – SKATERS

#	Player	G/ATT
18	Dany Masse	0/1
19	Brock Trotter	1/1
23	Max Pacioretty	0/1
44	Shawn Belle	0/1
91	Ben Maxwell	0/1

SHOOTOUT – GOALIES

#	Player	SVS/ATT
1	Curtis Sanford	3/5

Leaders:

Goals: Brock Trotter (26)
Assists: David Desharnais (32)
Points: Brock Trotter (55)
+/-: P.K. Subban (+29)
PIMS: Ryan White (95)
Shots: Mike Glumac (141)

This Week:

February 16:
Texas vs Hamilton
February 19: Hamilton vs Grand Rapids
February 21: Abbotsford vs Hamilton (at the Bell Centre)

A Decade of Deals

Though no more trades can be made this month,
it’s still worthwhile to look at the biggest deals of the last decade for the
Habs.

1) February 25, 2007: Habs acquire Josh Gorges and a 2007 1st round
pick (Max Pacioretty) for Craig Rivet and a 2008 5th rounder (Julien Demers).

In the grand scheme of things, one could argue that this was notable simply
because former GM Bob Gainey actually moved a pending UFA before the deadline. 
This deal has turned out to be quite a steal for the Habs as Gorges has become a
reliable defender while Pacioretty has the makings of at least a decent
prospect.  Rivet played out that season and one more with the Sharks before
being dealt to Buffalo where he plays today.

2) February 26, 2008: Habs acquire a 2009 2nd round pick (later
traded) from Washington for Cristobal Huet.

This deal goes here not so much for the parts involved but for the impact it
had on the franchise.  This trade anointed Carey Price as the goalie of the
future, probably a little earlier than most would’ve liked.  That being
said, considering what Huet signed for with Chicago, there was no way the Habs
could’ve re-signed him.

3) February 16, 2009: Habs acquire Mathieu Schneider and a conditional
2009 draft pick (3rd rounder – Joonas Nattinen in exchange for a 2009 2nd round
pick (acquired for Huet, above) and a 2010 3rd round pick.

It was a steep price to pay, but there’s no denying the fact that Schneider
had a major impact in his brief return to Montreal.  He picked up 17 points
in 23 regular season games with the Habs before moving to Vancouver in the
offseason.  Due to cap/injury concerns, he’s playing in Manitoba (5 points
in 8 games) but will likely be moved at the trade deadline. 

Final Thought

Having had a few days to reflect on the Dominic
Moore acquisition, there’s a few things that stand out to me regarding it. 
Yes, it’s a bit of a premium to pay, but rather than continually gripe about
that, I started thinking about some of the possible underlying reasons for the
deal.  Here’s a trio that I was able to come up with:

1) Need help now – Yes, they probably should have waited until March to
save on the cap, but with so many players out, an opportunity to bring in an NHL
calibre player to help immediately is tough to pass up.

2) Longer tryout period – I fully believe this deal was done with the
intention of evaluating him for a full time spot next season.  Don’t
forget, the Habs were interested in Moore all offseason, they just couldn’t come
to an agreement on money.  They’ve liked him for a while and evidently
still do, which is why Pierre Gauthier was adamant about moving to get him now.

3) Message – With all sorts of rumblings about what could be done before
March 3, it’s understandable that some players would be a little antsy about the
future.  Coming off a big win over Washington, this deal sent a message to
the players: Management believes in this team and wants to add to further its
success.  (Unfortunately the reaction to that message wasn’t a good one…)

If you have a question regarding this article or the
capsheet,
please feel free to drop me a line at
[email protected].