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The winning streak may have come to an end this
week, but still, 3 out of 4 points can’t be called a disappointment by any
means.  The news was good for the Bulldogs as well as they clinched the
division title with still 10 games to go in the season.  Scoreboard
watching is once again upon us which means the return of the weekly schedule
breakdowns for the East, while the Final Thought looks at the tough lineup
decisions the Habs will soon be facing.  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	Brian Gionta	2	Pretty much the only reason why the Habs got a point against the Leafs.
2	Tomas Plekanec	1	A quiet week, though a lot of that is attributable to his linemates.
3	Jaroslav Halak	3	Had a strong game in New York but took a step back in the Toronto loss.
4	Scott Gomez	5	Didn’t necessarily play his best hockey but did pick up 3 assists.
5	Benoit Pouliot	4	Arguably his quietest week since being acquired, but still played well.
6	Andrei Markov	6	Some iffy passes, a trend that was emerging just before the Olympics.
7	Josh Gorges	8	I hate using the same comment twice but please, please get him off the PP!
8	Dominic Moore	9	A little quiet against his ex-team but a decent week overall.
9	Sergei Kostitsyn	11	Fans all around must be wondering where this effort was earlier on.
10	Roman Hamrlik	7	For a player with lots of up and down weeks, this was one of the latter.
11	Glen Metropolit	13	How bad would the powerplay be without him this season?  Seriously.
12	Mathieu Darche	12	The offence wasn’t there but he still had a quality week.
13	Ryan O’Byrne	15	Continues to improve though watching him join the rush is painful.
14	Andrei Kostitsyn	10	To his credit he can score in the shootout, but nothing otherwise.
15	Jaroslav Spacek	14	If the nets in hockey were as big as in soccer, he’d be a true sniper.
16	Travis Moen	16	The quietest on the rapidly improving 3rd line, needs to crash the net.
17	Tom Pyatt	17	I like how he plays well defensively but he simply can’t stay on line 2.
18	Hal Gill	19	Steady week, even picked up a rare shorthanded point in New York.
19	Maxim Lapierre	20	Barely noticeable out there, though that may not be a bad thing.

Dropped from the rankings: Ben Maxwell (19 – DNP).

The Dog Pound

For the second straight, the Bulldogs lost
their way into clinching something.  This time, a shootout loss to the
Marlies propelled them to clinching the North Division title.

Results:

March 17	1	2	3	OT	SO	Tot	PP	SOG
Hamilton	1	0	4	0	1	6	0/6	30
Adirondack	2	2	1	0	0	5	2/5	22

Attendance:  2,500
3 Stars:  1) Matsumodo – ADK  2) Subban – HAM  3) Ross – ADK

March 19	1	2	3	Tot	PP	SOG
Hamilton	2	2	1	5	2/6	30
Lake Erie	0	3	0	3	2/6	29

Attendance:  11,348
3 Stars:  1) Glumac – HAM  2) Fahey – LE  3) Hensick –
LE

March 20	1	2	3	OT	SO	Tot	PP	SOG
Hamilton	0	1	2	0	0	3	0/6	45
Toronto	1	0	2	0	1	4	0/2	22

Attendance:  7,198
3 Stars:  1) MacDonald – TOR  2) Brent – TOR  3) Glumac –
HAM

Stats:

Cedrick Desjardins’ struggles continued this
week as he was pulled for the 3rd time in an 8 game stretch. 

SKATERS

#	Player	GP	G	A	+/-	SH	PIMS
4	Michael Vernace	3	0	0	+2	3	4
5	Alex Henry	3	0	0	-1	4	11
6	Chad Anderson	2	0	0	+1	0	0
7	Yannick Weber	3	1	1	+3	5	6
10	J.T. Wyman	3	0	1	+1	7	0
12	Andrew Conboy	3	2	0	+3	2	0
15	Mike Glumac	3	1	1	E	6	2
18	Dany Masse	3	0	0	E	3	0
19	Brock Trotter	3	3	0	+1	8	2
20	Ryan Russell	3	2	0	E	6	0
23	Max Pacioretty	1	0	0	E	1	0
25	Ryan White	3	0	2	E	8	13
26	Grant Stevenson	3	0	0	-3	7	2
28	Aaron Palushaj	3	1	2	+2	5	0
32	Frederic St. Denis	3	0	1	E	4	0
44	Shawn Belle	3	0	0	+2	6	2
51	David Desharnais	3	0	5	+5	8	2
61	Andre Benoit	3	0	2	E	8	0
76	P.K. Subban	3	3	1	+2	13	4

GOALIES

#	Player	Record	SV%	GAA
1	Curtis Sanford	2-0-0	.886	2.87
30	Cedrick Desjardins	0-0-1	.793	4.21

SHOOTOUT – SKATERS

#	Player	G/ATT
18	Dany Masse	0/1
19	Brock Trotter	0/2
20	Ryan Russell	1/2
25	Ryan White	1/2
28	Aaron Palushaj	0/1
44	Shawn Belle	0/1
76	P.K. Subban	1/2

SHOOTOUT – GOALIES

#	Player	SVS/ATT
1	Curtis Sanford	5/7
30	Cedrick Desjardins	2/4

Leaders:

Goals: Brock Trotter (31)
Assists: David Desharnais (43)
Points: Brock Trotter (67)
+/-: P.K. Subban (+39)
PIMS: Ryan White (133)
Shots: Mike Glumac (178)

This Week:

March 23: Hamilton vs
Manitoba
March 24: Hamilton vs Manitoba
March 26: Hamilton vs Abbotsford
March 27: Hamilton vs Abbotsford

Schedule Synopsis

The scoreboard watching has started up, which
means it’s time to bring back the weekly schedule breakdown for the Eastern
Conference playoff race.  Who are the Habs’ opponents facing?

Rk	Team	PTS	GP	Matchups	APP
5	Philadelphia	79	72	@ OTT, vs MIN, @ PIT, vs NJ	0.581
6	Ottawa	79	72	@ MTL, vs PHI, @ BUF, vs FLA	0.551
7	Montreal	79	72	vs OTT, @ BUF, vs FLA, vs NJ	0.569
8	Boston	76	71	@ ATL, vs TB, vs CGY	0.519
9	Atlanta	75	72	vs BOS, vs TOR, @ CAR	0.484
10	New York (R)	71	72	vs NYI, @ NJ, @ TOR	0.512
11	Florida	69	71	@ TOR, @ MTL, @ OTT	0.514

As of games played through Sunday, March 21. 
APP = Average points percentage (of opponents).  Theoretically, the higher
the APP, the tougher the opponents.

Final Thought

For the first time in a long time, the Habs
will soon find themselves in a position of actually having multiple healthy
scratches as the team will mostly be healthy.  So, with Mike Cammalleri and
Marc-Andre Bergeron set to return, who comes out of the lineup?  The
obvious answer at first is Tom Pyatt, but knowing how much Jacques Martin likes
him, you can’t summarily dismiss the thought that he might stay and an extra
person will sit.  For the sake of discussion, let’s assume he’s one. 
Determining the other is where it gets interesting. 

There’s plenty of options and all of them have a noted drawback which is what
makes this so interesting.  There’s Maxim Lapierre, who’s drawn the ire of
the coaches and most fans this year.  But he’s a right hand shot on the
draw, something the team lacks and he at least has the potential to get under
opponents’ skin.  What about Mathieu Darche, who was supposed to play only
a handful of games originally?  He, along with Glen Metropolit give the 4th
line at least some offensive ability.  Sergei Kostitsyn is playing too well
right now to come out of the lineup, same for Metropolit.  Then there’s the
defence, the position that Bergeron actually plays (yet no one expects him to
play there).  Perhaps giving the veterans (Hamrlik, Spacek, Gill) a night
off here and there would be most beneficial.

In the end, I think it will ultimately be Pyatt going down with press box time
being shared between Lapierre and Darche.  I think it’d be better if
Bergeron played some games on D to give the veterans a break, but in their
defence, it’s not as if they’ve played poorly lately either.  For the first
time in a while, coach Jacques Martin is going to have a tough lineup decision
to make.  I’m not quite sure why, but for some reason, this interests me
more than most lineup calls, largely because it’s near playoff time where lines
start to become more entrenched.  One thing’s for sure, we won’t have to
wait long with Cammalleri possibly going against Ottawa on Monday night.

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